V 

OCSB  LIBRARY 


POTSDAM    PRINCES 


A   PRESENT-DAY   FAMILY   GROUP 

Reading  from  left  to  right  the  figures  are : — 
Back  Row  :— Prince  Joachim  of  frnssia,  the  Duchess  of  Brnns-wick  (Princes 

the  Duke  of  Rrnnsivick 
Second  Row  .-—Prince  Oscar  of  Prussia.  Princess  August-  tnihelm  of  Prussia,  the  Crc-.cn  Pnnce. 

Prince  Eitel-Hriedrich 

Front  Ron' :— Princess  Eitel-Friedrich,  the  Crown  Princess.  Prince  Adalbert,  and  Prince  Auftlit 
Wilhclm  of  Prussia 


POTSDAM    PRINCES 


BY 

ETHEL    HOWARD 


WITH  TWELVE  PLATES 


NEW   YORK 

E.  P.   BUTTON  AND  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


PREFACE 

MANY  people  assure  me  that  what 
I  can  tell  of  the  Kaiser's  sons  as 
boys,  and  of  their  personalities  as 
then  expressed,  will  be  of  general  interest. 
Guided  by  my  diary,  I  have  set  down  my 
experiences  as  their  English  governess.  In 
the  fierce  light  of  the  greatest  conflagration 
of  history  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  think 
of  them  now  as  I  did  then,  but  I  have  tried 
to  write  a  true  and  unbiased  account  of 
my  pupils  as  I  found  them. 

LETHEL  HOWARD 
December  1915 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  MY  APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES  .  .        i 

II.  MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES       .  .  .27 

III.  THE  CRADLE  OF  MILITARISM  .  .  -59 

IV.  THE  LIGHTER  SIDE       .           .  .  -83 
V.  MY  RELATIONS  WITH  THE  KAISER  .  .112 

VI.  THE  KAISERIN    .           .           .  .  .138 

VII.  INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE    .  .  .    159 

VIII.  POMP  AND  PAGEANT      .          .  .  .189 

IX.  IMPERIAL  TRAVELS        .           .  .  .218 

X.  THE  QUEEN  OF  THE  BELGIANS  .  .    234 

XI.  CHRISTMAS  AT  POTSDAM          .  .  .    253 

XII.  THE  COURT  HOSPITAL  ....    276 

INDEX       .          .           .          .  .  .291 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  PRESENT-DAY  FAMILY  GROUP.  .         Frontispiece 

Photo,  Exclusive  News  Agency 

FACING    PACK 

THE  CROWN  PRINCE,  HIS  BROTHERS  AND  SISTER.  i 
PRINCE  ADALBERT,  AGED  13  .  .  .  -32 
PRINCESS  VICTORIA  LUISE  AT  THE  AGE  OF  4  -42 
PRINCE  JOACHIM  AT  THE  AGE  OF  6  .  .  -42 

"A  SNOC  LITTLE  KOONER"    .          .          .          .64 

A  drawing  by  the  Crown  Prince 

PRINCE  OSCAR  AT  THE  AGE  OF  12    .  .          .96 

THE  LITTLE  PRINCESS  AND  HER  BROTHER,  PRINCE 

JOACHIM       ......    102 

THE  KAISER  AND  FIVE  OF  HIS  SONS  GOING  TO 
CHURCH      .          .          .          .          .          .190 

THE  CASCADE,  WILHELMSHOHE,  NEAR  CASSEL      .    226 

THE  KAISER  ON  BOARD  THE  "  HOHENZOLLERN  "  ON 
THE  JOURNEY  TO  PALESTINE      .          .  .    230 

TEGERNSEE,  BAVARIA  .....  234 
A  ROYAL  PICNIC  PARTY  IN  BAVARIA  .  .  248 


THE   CROWN    PRINCE,    HIS    BROTHERS   AND    SISTER 


POTSDAM    PRINCES 

CHAPTER    I 
MY  APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES 

MY  appointment  as  English  gover- 
ness   to    the    German    Emperor's 
sons  was  one  of  those  sudden  and 
unexpected  events  which   turn   the  whole 
course  of  one's  life. 

The  youngest  but  one  of  a  large  family, 
and — unlike  my  sisters — showing  no  par- 
ticular talent  for  music  or  painting,  my 
father  determined  to  educate  me  more  like 
a  boy  than  a  girl.  Thus  I  was  kept  with 
my  nose  to  the  grindstone  at  both  classics 
and  mathematics,  it  being  intended  that  I 
should  distinguish  myself  in  these  subjects 
at  a  University. 

However,  it  was  not  to  be.     Mv  father 


2  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

took  me  in  hand  himself,  and  put  me 
through  a  pretty  severe  course  of  study. 
Being  at  an  age  when  fun  and  frivolity 
appealed  to  me  more  than  Virgil  and 
Euclid,  I  rebelled  against  what  I  described 
to  him  as  unnecessary  erudition  for  a  girl, 
and  to  my  delight  he  replied  that  if  I 
could  get  any  boy  to  teach,  I  should  retain 
the  knowledge  I  had  acquired,  and  I  need 
study  no  further. 

Thus  began  my  teaching  career,  and  no 
sooner  did  my  first  pupil  win  a  scholarship 
than  I  realized  that  apart  from  love  of 
the  work,  I  seemed  to  be  fairly  successful 
in  it. 

The  King  of  Siam's  nephew  (Prince 
Sithiphorn)  was  one  of  my  next  pupils,  but 
never  did  I  dream  in  those  days  of  the  ex- 
alted privilege  looming  ahead  of  me,  that 
of  being  chosen  as  English  governess  to 
the  sons  of  Wilhelm  II,  the  present  Kaiser  ! 

"  But  how  on  earth  did  you  manage  to 
get  this  appointment  ?  "  my  friends  would 
ask  me,  and  in  fact  it  was  often  a  puzzle  to 
myself. 


APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES     3 

Indeed,  so  little  notion  had  I  of  the  work 
in  store  for  me,  that  when  in  the  autumn  of 
1895  I  suddenly  received  a  regal-looking 
crested  envelope,  the  contents  of  which 
informed  me  that  I  had  been  appointed 
governess  to  the  sons  of  the  German 
Emperor,  I  thought  it  was  a  practical  joke 
perpetrated  by  a  relative  particularly  ad- 
dicted to  such  forms  of  witticism. 

I  of  course  took  no  notice,  but  some  little 
time  afterwards  I  received  a  letter  from 
an  old  family  friend,  Miss  Walker,  Principal 
of  the  Royal  School  at  Bath,  who  had  in 
previous  years  herself  been  governess  to 
the  German  Empress  when  a  girl.  This 
was  to  ask  me  why  I  had  not  immediately 
replied  to  the  letter  from  the  German 
Court,  as  the  Mistress  of  the  Robes  had 
written  to  her  stating  she  had  received  no 
reply  from  me.  I  at  once  wrote  apolo- 
gizing, but  declining  the  honour  on  the 
ground  that  my  French  was  imperfect  and 
I  had  no  music — two  things  mentioned  in 
the  letter  as  being  essential.  In  spite  of 
my  lack  of  these  acquirements,  however, 


4  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

the  Empress  still  wished  me  appointed,  and 
in  some  fear  and  trepidation  I  accepted. 

I  was  quite  young  at  the  time,  and  the 
thought  of  the  coming  parting  was  a  night- 
mare to  me.  We  were  more  closely  knit 
than  is  common  amongst  most  families, 
so  much  so  that  my  father  always  com- 
pared us  to  a  bundle  of  sticks.  I  had 
never  gone  abroad  before,  and  the  thought 
of  leaving  the  simple  and  happy  shelter  of 
home  for  the  cold  and  rigid  ceremonial  and 
unknown  difficulties  of  a  foreign  Court 
appalled  me.  I  knew  little  or  no  German, 
and  as  the  hour  of  my  departure  approached 
I  felt  more  and  more  nervous. 

When,  in  December  1895,  the  dread 
moment  arrived,  my  courage  failed  me, 
and  I  actually  jumped  out  of  the  railway 
carriage,  exclaiming,  "No,  I  can't  go  so  far 
from  home,  not  for  any  Emperor  !  "  My 
mother,  whom  I  worshipped,  gently  pushed 
me  in  again ;  and  so,  amid  blinding  tears, 
I  set  forth  to  my  new  life. 

My  journey  to  Berlin  was  not  without 
incident,  as  one  of  my  travelling-corn- 


APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES     5 

panions  more  or  less  tried  to  commit 
suicide.  I  was  too  absorbed  in  my  own 
thoughts  to  take  much  notice  of  the  ever- 
changing  country  as  it  unfolded  itself  before 
my  eyes.  Nor  did  I  notice  my  fellow- 
travellers,  until  shortly  after  we  left  Flush- 
ing I  found  I  was  alone  in  the  compartment 
with  a  woman  who  seemed  even  more 
nervous  and  unhappy  than  I  was  myself. 

She  told  me  a  telegram  had  summoned 
her  to  Berlin,  as  her  mother  was  dying.  As 
the  night  wore  on,  she  became  more  and 
more  distraught,  and  it  was  a  horrible 
moment  when  she  suddenly  flung  open  the 
carriage  door,  crying,  "  Hold  me,  hold  me, 
or  I  shall  jump  out !  "  I  duly  held  her, 
and  managed  to  soothe  her,  but  was  grateful 
for  the  morning  light  and  Berlin  at  last. 

Miss ,  whose  place  I  was  to  take, 

met  me  at  the  station.  She  was  resigning 
through  ill-health,  but  had  awaited  my 
arrival  in  order  to  initiate  me  into  the  per- 
formance of  my  duties.  It  was  not  until  a 
day  or  two  later,  when  I  had  a  fair  idea  of 
them,  that  I  was  presented  to  the  Kaiserin, 


6  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

and  some  few  days  elapsed  before  I  was 
allowed  to  definitely  take  charge  of  the 
Princes. 

The  gorgeous  silver-braided  livery  of  the 
coachman  and  the  beautiful  pair  of  horses 
in  the  brougham  first  caught  my  eye,  and 
I  enjoyed  the  quick  drive  through  the  streets 
to  the  Konigliches  Schloss,  the  German 
equivalent  of  our  Buckingham  Palace.  I 
was  shown  at  once  to  my  bedroom,  which 
though  not  large  was  a  most  palatial  apart- 
ment, everything  in  it  being  very  beautiful, 
the  Berlin  china-ware  bearing  the  Royal 
Crown,  and  all  the  linen  being  embroidered 
in  the  same  manner. 

This  room  was  set  somewhat  apart  from 
the  others  in  the  main  Palace,  being  in 
fact  in  the  visitors'  wing.  I  was  not  very 
much  impressed  by  the  fact  at  the  time, 
though  I  did  rather  wonder  why  (since  I 
was  obviously  not  a  visitor)  I  had  been  put 
in  this  wing.  Later  I  was  told  that  it  was 
done  purposely,  for  the  reason  that  the 
sudden  introduction  into  the  fullness  of 
Court  grandeur  had  frequently  unbalanced 


APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES     7 

people's  minds — in  fact,  they  had  become 
temporarily  insane  through  it.  I  was 
inwardly  rather  amused  at  this,  but  I 
received  striking  and  unexpected  proof  of 
it  a  few  days  after  my  arrival,  in  the  person 
of  my  housemaid,  herself  a  new-comer. 
One  morning  she  suddenly  began  to  kiss 
my  feet  very  vigorously,  tickling  them 
horribly  as  she  did  so ;  I  thought  her 
manner  rather  strange,  but  put  her  action 
down  to  some  curious  German  custom  of 
which  I  was  ignorant.  A  day  or  two  later, 
however,  a  new  housemaid  appeared  in 
her  place,  and  I  was  informed  that  the 
foot-worshipper  had  been  discharged  as 
temporarily  insane. 

Soon  after  my  arrival  began  my  initia- 
tion, first  as  to  the  general  manner  of  Court 
life,  and  then  as  to  my  own  particular 
duties. 

Each  lady  of  the  Court — and  I  was  now 
one  of  their  number — had  certain  personal 
servants  allotted.  In  those  days  she  had 
one  housemaid,  one  "  Diener "  or  man- 
servant, and  a  lackey  behind  her  chair  at 


8  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

meals,  who  also  acted  as  footman  when 
driving.  Ladies-in-waiting  also  had  their 
own  maids,  paid  for  by  themselves. 

I  was  allotted  my  servant,  though  my 
housemaid  had  to  be  changed,  as  I  have 
already  related  ;  I  was  also  given  a  pass 
to  admit  me  through  any  of  the  Palace  gates. 
The  head  of  the  Kaiserin's  household  and 
Mistress  of  the  Robes,  the  Countess  Therese 
von  Brockdorff,  sent  me  very  kind  messages, 
and  came  to  see  me  the  morning  after  my 
arrival,  the  other  ladies  of  the  Court  follow- 
ing soon  after.  They  explained  to  me  that 
in  the  Berlin  Palace  life  was  very  strenuous, 
for  the  Kaiser  and  Kaiserin  as  well  as  their 
entourage.  Their  Majesties  always  break- 
fasted alone  with  each  other,  and  the 
members  of  the  Household  took  this 
meal  each  in  his  or  her  bedroom  or 
personal  sitting-room.  Other  meals  were 
according  to  invitation,  but  it  generally 
meant  a  formal  midday  luncheon  daily 
with  Their  Majesties  and  other  guests,  at 
any  rate  at  the  Potsdam  Palace,  the 
invitation  card  bearing  the  names  of  the 


APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES     9 

most  distinguished  persons  to  whom  Royal 
hospitality  was  thus  dispensed. 

I  was  somewhat  perturbed,  as  I  had 
never  anticipated  lunching  daily  like  this 
with  Royalty,  and  my  limited  wardrobe  was 
the  source  of  some  anxiety  to  me.  I  found 
it  also  opened  up  temptations.  Certain 
shops  were  in  the  habit  of  offering  one 
clothes,  gratis,  in  return  for  recommenda- 
tion, which  enticements  one  had  to  ignore. 
Editors  of  Society  papers,  too,  tempted  one 
to  give  anecdotes  and  details  of  Court  life, 
which  offers  had  to  be  treated  in  a  like 
manner.  In  this  connexion  I  thought  of 
my  parents'  sound  advice  never  to  write 
them  any  details  of  Court  life,  as  my  letters 
home  were  liable  to  be  opened  and  cen- 
sored. This  rule  I  never  broke,  and  conse- 
quently my  friends  will  hear  of  my  detailed 
experiences  at  the  Kaiser's  Court  for  the 
first  time  when  they  read  this  account, 
taken  entirely  from  diary  notes,  supple- 
mented by  memory. 

It  was  good  news  to  me,  on  the  day  of  my 
arrival,   to  hear  that   afternoon   tea  was 


io  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

always  served,  and  joyfully  I  greeted  the 
fact  that  my  evening  meal  would  be  a  less 
formal  affair,  being  taken  alone  with  the 
Princes  at  seven  o'clock.  For  their  supper 
they  had  thick  bread  and  spare  butter,  or 
"  bread- and-scrape,"  as  the  schoolboys  call 
it.  They  were  in  the  habit  of  consuming 
enormous  mouthfuls  of  it,  talking  and 
laughing  at  the  same  time,  but  as  it  was 
obvious  that  this  was  not  a  formal  meal  I 
resolved  not  to  attempt  to  inculcate  any 
special  table  manners,  but  to  let  them  enjoy 
the  freedom  from  the  restraint  which  was 
necessary  on  other  occasions.  Here  I 
might  mention  that  the  change  to  German 
food  was  rather  distasteful  to  me.  I  much 
preferred  our  own  English  bread  to  the 
black  kind  ;  to  eat  fruit  with  meat  seemed 
out  of  place;  and  as  to  eating  "Ganz- 
fleisch,"  or  raw  goose,  nothing  would  ever 
induce  me  to  even  taste  it.  The  Crown 
Prince,  for  some  reason  or  other,  was  most 
anxious  that  I  should  do  so,  and  graciously 
offered  me  a  reward,  which,  however,  did  not 
tempt  me.  It  seemed  to  offend  the  Princes 


APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES     n 

that  I  did  not  care  for  their  German 
food  ;  it  was  only  when  I  had  meals  alone 
in  my  room  that  I  could  choose  the  most 
English  dishes  possible.  Each  individual 
had  to  sign  for  his  meals  in  his  rooms 
just  as  in  a  hotel ;  this  arrangement,  which 
in  a  commercial  undertaking  enables  one's 
bill  to  be  made  out,  was  here  of  course  only 
introduced  as  a  check  on  the  servants. 

I  had  been  at  the  Court  for  two  days 
when  I  was  taken  to  the  Kaiserin's  boudoir 
and  presented.  I  went  in  not  without 
qualms,  but  I  must  say  she  was  most  kind. 
She  inquired  after  my  friend  whose  influence 
had  got  me  the  post, — her  own  former 
governess, — hoped  I  would  be  happy,  and 
that  I  should  get  on  well  with  the  children, 
told  me  I  should  find  them  very  lively, 
but  amenable  and  always  willing  to  please, 
which  proved  to  be  true.  She  certainly 
spoke  English  very  well, — I  later  found  that 
she  wrote  it  still  better,* — and  I  remember 
thinking  that  if  I  could  teach  my  charges 
to  speak  as  well  as  my  friend  had  taught 
their  mother,  I  should  not  do  badly. 


12  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

It  appeared  that  although  I  had  given 
my  age  in  my  letter,  she  had  not  expected 
me  to  look  so  young,  and  I  was  therefore 
requested  to  dress  in  as  old  a  manner  as 
possible.  I  was  not  allowed  a  coat  and 
skirt,  or  a  sailor  hat,  then  the  prevailing 
fashion,  but  was  ordered  to  wear  a  bonnet, 
and  not  to  think  of  moving  without  white 
kid  gloves  and  a  fan,  especially  for  the 
midday  meal.  Fortunately,  I  had  been 
prepared  for  the  gloves,  but  it  was  tire- 
some about  the  bonnets,  and  the  silk  dresses 
which  one  was  supposed  to  wear  whenever 
a  Royalty  or  any  other  important  guest 
was  present.  Not  being  well  off,  I  had 
only  a  limited  number  of  frocks,  and 
sadly  anticipated  spending  more  than  I 
could  really  afford. 

The  Mistress  of  the  Bedchamber,  on 
whom  devolved  the  duty  of  putting  me 
right  in  the  choice  of  costume,  was  a 
delightful  little  lady,  with  whom  I  was 
soon  on  very  intimate  terms.  Her  name 
was  Fraulein  von  Hake,  and  although  of 
noble  birth  her  official  position  prevented 


APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES     13 

her  from  being  present  at  any  of  the  Royal 
meals.  When  I  gained  courage  to  remind 
the  latter  that  the  Kaiserin  was  aware  of 
my  age  when  she  engaged  me,  she  said  I 
was  chosen  for  my  youth,  as  they  liked  the 
governess  to  play  games  with  the  Princes 
and  join  in  the  fun  generally,  and  not  to 
mind  any  little  harmless  boyish  pranks. 

I  learnt  that  each  Prince  had  a  military 
governor,  and  all  the  governors,  tutors, 
and  teachers  generally — including  myself — 
were  under  General  von  Deines,  the  head 
governor,  who  had  the  special  care  of  the 
Crown  Prince.  Later  on,  when  I  could 
speak  German,  I  brought  various  diffi- 
culties to  this  stern-looking  man,  who 
was  yet  tender  withal,  and  I  came  to 
understand  how  wisely  and  justly  he 
ruled.  His  word  was  law,  and  at  first  I 
stood  very  much  in  awe  of  him. 

I  found  I  was  to  have  charge  of  all  the 
Princes,  but  that  I  should  have  the  Crown 
Prince  for  a  few  weeks  only,  as  he  was 
destined  for  the  school  at  Ploen,  where  his 
brother  Eitel  Fritz  was  to  go  also. 


i4  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

My  work  as  English  governess  was 
mapped  out  for  me,  and  I  was  given  a 
time-table,  which,  however,  was  liable  to 
alteration  at  a  moment's  notice,  especially 
in  the  Potsdam  Palace.  It  is  difficult  for 
me  to  do  more  than  sketch  my  days  or  give 
a  definite  outline  of  the  routine  of  each 
Prince,  we  were  all  so  much  at  the  mercy 
of  sudden  changes  of  plans,  arising  from 
various  causes. 

Two  words  in  German  that  I  early  learnt 
the  meaning  of  were  these  :  "  im  Dienst," 
literally  translated  by  "in  service."  I 
suppose  in  England  we  should  say  "  on 
duty,"  but  I  always  think  of  it  by  the 
former  phrase,  which  I  used  throughout 
my  diary  as  being  more  expressive  of  the 
very  real  servitude  in  which  my  life  was 
spent  at  this  time. 

Apparently  I  was  to  be  always  more  or 
less  "  im  Dienst."  When  my  duties  with 
the  Princes  did  not  claim  me,  I  was  to  act 
as  a  sort  of  extra  lady-in-waiting,  attend- 
ing on  odd  Royalties  who  happened  to  be 
visiting,  or  even  on  the  Empress  herself 


APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES     15 

if  for  some  reason  or  other  one  of  her 
ladies  failed  her.  I  did  not  realize  what 
an  arduous  time  I  was  in  for,  and  to  do 
her  justice,  I  do  not  think  the  Kaiserin  did 
either.  I  was  destined  to  be  a  sort  of 
"  jack-of-all- trades,"  teaching  the  Princes, 
attending  visiting  Royalties,  sight-seeing 
with  their  ladies,  reading  English  to  and 
writing  English  letters  for  anyone  who 
asked  me  and  whom  I  did  not  like  to 
refuse. 

To  return  to  my  time-table  as  governess, 
presented  to  me  on  arrival :  I  was  certainly 
subjected  to  the  same  Spartan  methods 
as  those  which  directed  the  Princes'  educa- 
tion. I  was  given  the  early  morning 
work,  which  necessitated  my  finishing 
breakfast  and  being  ready  to  go  out  walk- 
ing at  8  a.m.  It  was  winter  when  I  got 
there,  and  anyone  who  knows  the  intense 
cold  of  Berlin  will  appreciate  how  severe 
I  found  this  morning  exercise.  It  lasted 
from  8  a.m.  until  just  before  12.30,  when 
one  had  ten  minutes  or  so  to  change  for 
luncheon. 


16  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

I  noticed  that  the  military  governors 
managed  to  get  a  comfortable  breakfast 
in  a  nice  warm  room,  not  braving  the 
elements  too  early  in  the  morning  them- 
selves. 

The  whole  morning  I  used  to  spend 
walking  with  each  Prince  in  turn,  half 
running,  as  it  was  too  cold  to  sit  down  or 
walk  slowly ;  the  reason  for  their  walk 
and  talk  alone  with  me  being  that  their 
English  conversation  should  have  my 
individual  attention,  and  that  they  should 
thus  perfect  their  knowledge  of  the  lan- 
guage without  too  much  realizing  that 
they  were  doing  so.  Also  they  each  had 
absolutely  separate  governors  and  separate 
time-tables,  driving  daily  to  their  tutors 
at  the  Bellevue  Palace,  which  was  used 
as  their  schoolroom  while  in  Berlin.  Some- 
times I  would  go  there  with  them,  and 
the  rapid  drive  through  the  streets  was 
always  enjoyable.  This  was  made  pos- 
sible by  the  custom  of  clearing  them  be- 
forehand for  Royalty  to  pass  :  I  believe 
a  fine  was  inflicted  on  any  vehicle  getting 


APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES     17 

in  the  way.  It  had  the  disadvantage  of 
letting  people  know  we  were  coming,  and 
I  used  to  quite  pity  the  Princes  for  the 
constant  saluting  they  had  to  acknowledge, 
especially  when  driving  down  Unter-den- 
Linden. 

In  Potsdam  the  Princes  used  to  be 
present  at  the  terrible  and  formal  midday 
meal,  usually  at  12.30  or  i  o'clock,  but 
subject,  like  everything  else,  to  the  vagaries 
of  circumstances.  I,  for  one,  never  en  joyed 
it,  nor,  I  think,  did  they.  To  this  meal 
numerous  guests  were  invited  daily,  and  I 
often  met  and  conversed  with  gorgeously 
arrayed  officers  and  diplomats  whose  names 
are  now  household  words  in  every  land. 

I  was  young  at  the  time,  and  I  suppose 
being  so  much  in  contact  with  the  Imperial 
Family  led  me  to  consider  other  guests  as 
small  and  unimportant.  I  well  remember 
the  joy  with  which  I  would  greet  the  fact 
that  no  one  above  a  Serene  Highness  was 
invited,  as  it  meant  no  need  to  wear  a  silk 
frock,  and  I  fear  this  was  my  general  point 
of  view. 


i8  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

Prince  von  Billow  I  remember,  but  when 
I  first  got  there  I  think  Prince  von  Hohen- 
lohe  was  still  the  Imperial  Chancellor, 
having  succeeded  General  von  Caprivi,  who 
followed  the  great  Bismarck.  This  Prince 
Hohenlohe  was  called  Uncle  Clovis  by  the 
family  in  moments  of  relaxation.  The  ladies 
prepared  me  well  beforehand,  informing 
me  that  he  was  a  very  great  celebrity, 
and  congratulating  me  on  being  fortunate 
enough  to  meet  him.  Somehow  or  other, 
my  idea  of  great  German  men  was  inex- 
plicably mingled  with  the  idea  of  great 
bulk  and  girth.  I  was  surprised,  there- 
fore, to  find  that  Prince  von  Hohenlohe  was 
a  thin,  wizened  old  man,  so  small  and  light 
that  he  looked  as  if  he  would  blow  away  ! 
His  plain  black  clothes,  too,  were  a  contrast 
to  the  brilliant  uniforms  I  had  grown  to 
expect.  Everyone  treated  him  with  in- 
tense respect,  including  the  Kaiser,  over 
whom  he  seemed  to  have  great  influence. 
I  think  the  Prince  must  have  been  father  or 
uncle  to  the  Prince  von  Hohenlohe  who,  so 
the  papers  say,  got  the  secret  treaty  between 


APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES     19 

Germany  and  Bulgaria  signed  at  Sofia  in 
July  1915.  General  Count  von  Walder- 
see,  in  my  time  the  Chief  of  the  German 
General  Staff,  and  afterwards  Field  Marshal, 
I  knew  very  well.  He  it  was  who  in  later 
years  led  the  International  troops  to  Peking, 
after  which  expedition  he  visited  Japan, 
where  he  made  me  an  especial  visit.  I  was 
educating  young  Japanese  Princes  then, 
and  the  Field  Marshal  insisted  on  having  a 
photo  taken  with  one  of  the  boys  on  his 
shoulder,  as  he  affirmed  that  the  Kaiser 
would  be  most  interested  and  gratified  to 
receive  such  a  picture  of  the  East  and  West 
united. 

But  I  am  digressing.  I  must  return  to 
the  formal  midday  meal  where  I  met  these 
great  men. 

There  was  nearly  an  hour  of  eating, 
drinking,  and  talking,  and  then  we  would 
all  adjourn  together,  ladies  first,  into  the 
room  where  we  took  coffee.  Here  we 
were  often  compelled  to  drag  out  another 
hour — a  weary  one  to  me,  I  must  confess,  as 
it  did  not  seem  to  be  correct  to  sit  down, 


20  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

and  after  a  whole  morning  on  one's  feet, 
and  a  heavy  midday  meal,  one  simply 
longed  for  a  chair. 

The  Princes  would  stay  talking  until 
such  time  as  they  were  carried  off  by  their 
respective  governors  for  study,  and  I  did 
not  see  them  again  as  a  rule  until  after  tea. 
If  I  had  not  to  dance  attendance  on  any 
Royalty,  and  otherwise  had  none  of  my 
multifarious  duties  to  perform,  I  used  to 
read  or  write  in  my  room,  have  tea,  and 
perhaps  go  for  a  walk.  Then  I  took  the 
Princes  again  for  recreation,  often  playing 
games  with  them  in  the  Palace  garden. 
Supper  alone  with  them  at  seven  o'clock, 
after  which  I  would  read  English  story- 
books to  them  until  eight  o'clock,  when 
they  went  to  bed.  The  second  youngest, 
Oscar,  went  first;  Prince  Joachim  being 
still  in  the  nursery  did  not  appear  at 
supper  at  all,  nor  did  I  see  much  of  him 
when  I  was  there.  The  other  Princes  went 
to  bed  in  order  of  age,  each  one  a  quarter 
of  an  hour  later  than  his  junior.  About 
8.45  I  was  more  or  less  free,  and  by  that 


APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES     21 

time  so  tired,  I   often  went  to  bed  very 
early. 

In  the  Neues  Palais,  or  New  Palace,  near 
Potsdam,  the  real  home,  where  they  spent 
more  time  than  anywhere,  life  was  neces- 
sarily different.  It  was  something  like  the 
Windsor  home  of  our  own  King  and  Queen, 
in  that  life  there  was  understood  to  be  a 
family  one.  Even  so,  one  had  to  be  sent 
an  invitation  card  for  each  meal  taken  with 
the  Kaiser  and  Kaiserin  and  their  suite, 
and  there  was  not  much  less  of  the  cumber- 
some ceremonial  which  we  all  found  so  irk- 
some. Looking  through  my  papers  of  that 
far-off  time,  I  find  a  letter  home  (whether  I 
ever  sent  it  or  not  I  do  not  remember), 
which  perhaps  best  describes  the  manner  of 
my  days.  It  is  dated  a  year  or  more  after 
my  arrival,  and  runs  thus  : 

11  POTSDAM,  NEUES  PALAIS 
"  Their  Majesties  are  away.  I  will  sketch 
my  days  this  week  (except  Wednesday  and 
Saturday).  Up  at  6.30.  Breakfast  7.30. 
Drive  7.45  to  Lindstedt.  They  have  a  little 
castle  there,  which  has  just  been  fitted  up 


22  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

as  a  school  for  three  of  the  four  boys  at  home 
— the  Crown  Prince  and  Prince  Fritz  are 
studying  now  as  cadets  up  at  Kiel.  Lind- 
stedt  is  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour's  walk 
from  the  Neues  Palais.  I  am  there  8  to 
10  a.m.  two  days  a  week,  and  8  to  n 
other  days,  walking  alone  with  each 
Prince  during  that  time.  I  have  a  German 
teacher  on  my  return,  as  the  Empress  dis- 
approves of  my  speaking  ungrammatical 
German. 

"  In  the  afternoons  I  drive  either  with 
the  Kaiserin  (if  she's  here)  and  the  Princes, 
or  alone  with  one  of  the  Princes.  We  go 
some  distance,  and  then  get  out  of  the 
carriage  and  walk.  Supper  at  7  p.m.  up- 
stairs with  the  three  Princes,  and  stay 
with  them  till  8.30.  Besides  this,  I  have 
endless  English  letters  and  unexpected  odd 
jobs." 

In  those  days  I  had  many  difficulties 
— which  later  became  even  more  acute — 
with  the  old  English  head  nurse,  who  had 
brought  up  all  the  children  from  babyhood. 
If  I  drove  with  the  Princes,  she  resented 
it — in  fact,  whatever  I  did,  she  resented. 


APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES     23 

It  was  astonishing  what  power  one  in  her 
position  possessed,  chiefly  on  account  of 
her  having  the  Kaiserin's  maternal  ear. 
She  feared  no  one,  and  ruled  the  lackeys 
with  a  rod  of  iron,  trying  hard  to  annex  me 
as  nursery  governess  under  her  thumb. 

When  I  arrived,  she  tried  to  arrange 
that  I  should  be  given  only  a  servant's 
Palace-entrance  card,  and  the  use  of  no 
carriage — in  fact,  the  same  status  as  nurse 
that  she  herself  possessed.  That  she  did 
not  succeed  was  due  to  the  governors,  who 
naturally  wished  to  give  me  my  rightful 
position  as  a  lady  of  the  Court,  provided 
on  all  public  occasions  I  was  kept  in  the 
background  and  not  seen  with  the  Princes. 
The  governors  were  quite  kind  to  me,  but 
I  could  see  that  they  would  have  liked  to 
protect  their  Princes  against  the  influence 
of  any  woman — especially  a  foreigner  and 
an  Englishwoman — preferring  an  essenti- 
ally masculine  and  military  education. 

The  ladies,  by  their  frequent  intercourse 
with  me,  showed  that  they  far  from  disliked 
me.  They  seemed  quite  content  that  I 


24  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

should  rank  as  one  of  themselves,  but  they 
politely  but  clearly  let  me  understand  that 
I  was  in  no  way  to  encroach  on  their 
privilege  of  waiting  on  the  Kaiserin.  When 
she  commanded  my  personal  attendance 
they  were  often  astonished  and,  not  un- 
naturally, rather  hurt.  I  did  not  seek 
this  "  privilege,"  but  here  again  I  had  to 
bury  my  inclinations,  notwithstanding  their 
feelings  :  I  could  but  obey  the  Imperial 
commands.  Their  relations  with  the 
Princes,  too,  were  changed  after  my  arrival. 
They  naturally  wanted  to  see  something 
of  the  children,  and  play  with  them 
occasionally,  but  according  to  my  orders 
I  was  obliged  to  close  the  schoolroom 
against  them  sometimes. 

To  sum  up  the  whole,  it  became  one 
long  struggle.  Whatever  course  my  duty 
compelled  me  to  adopt,  antagonism  against 
someone  was  the  inevitable  result.  The 
nursery  regime  was  unwilling  to  brook 
anything  which  removed  the  children  from 
nursery  ways  or  which  lessened  nursery 
coddling  and  pampering.  Everything  out- 


APPOINTMENT  AND  DUTIES     25 

side  this  pale  was  labelled  severe,  and 
naturally  found  a  sympathetic  listener  in 
the  Kaiserin — a  mother  above  all. 

Nevertheless,  the  continual  friction  with 
the  nurse,  and  her  influence  with  the 
Kaiserin  against  me,  caused  me  to  be 
treated  in  a  very  uncertain  way.  Some- 
times I  was  all  in  favour — sometimes  I 
found  myself  all  out  of  favour  and  given 
next  to  no  work.  It  all  depended  on  the 
"  moods  "  of  the  Kaiserin,  the  governors 
and  the  ladies,  and  also  whether  the  nurse's 
powers  were  in  full. 

When  in  the  quiet  of  my  room  I  thought 
over  these  various  difficulties,  it  seemed 
to  me  that  courtiers,  whatever  their  rank, 
were  but  servants,  and  that  wheels  within 
wheels  and  petty  endeavours  to  gain  Royal 
favour  were  worth  but  little.  I  made  the 
excellent  resolution,  therefore,  to  do  what  I 
believed  to  be  best  for  the  Princes,  regard- 
less of  whom  I  might  annoy,  and  this  I 
think  I  honestly  carried  out  during  the 
three  years  of  my  service.  In  course  of 
time  I  managed  to  annoy  a  good  many 


26  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

people,  but  I  was  annoyed  enough  by  them, 
in  all  conscience,  so  we  were  quits.  On 
the  whole,  though,  it  was  a  fairly  happy 
time,  and  at  any  rate  a  great  experience 
which  I  would  not  have  been  without. 


CHAPTER  II 
MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES 

I  HAD,  of  course,  before  I  arrived,  care- 
fully noted  down  the  various  names 
and  ages  of  the  Kaiser's  seven  children ; 
in  fact,  I  had  carefully  learnt  these  up, 
making  out  a  sheet  of  paper  with  their 
names,  dates  of  birth,  and  actual  age  at 
the  moment,  all  neatly  tabulated,  which 
I  used  to  study  at  odd  moments.  I  felt 
if  I  did  not  do  this,  I  should  get  hopelessly 
mixed  as  to  which  was  which.  As  it  was, 
after  seeing  the  Princes,  although  I  knew 
their  names,  I  could  not  at  first,  when 
away  from  them,  put  the  right  face  to  each 
name,  or  the  right  name  to  each  face. 

To  give  their  respective  ages  in  December 
of  that  year,  1895  :  the  Crown  Prince  was 
getting  on  for  fourteen,  his  brother  Eitel 
Friedrich  twelve  and  a  half,  Prince  Adal- 


•i 


28  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

bert  a  year  and  seven  days  younger,  Prince 
August -Wilhelm  nearly  nine,  Prince  Oscar 
seven  and  a  half,  and  little  Prince  Joachim 
only  just  five  years  old.  The  Kaiser's  only 
daughter,  Princess  Victoria  Luise,  or 
"  Sissy,"  as  she  was  fondly  called,  was  a 
baby  of  three  years  old. 

My  first  introduction  to  the  Princes  took 
place  on  the  same  evening  as  my  presenta- 
tion to  the  Kaiserin.  Prince  Joachim 
being  still  in  the  nursery,  was  not  there, 
but  I  found  the  five  eldest  boys  quite 
enough  at  a  time.  I  was  much  struck  by 
their  appearance;  they  all  had  fair  hair, 
and  such  bright  eyes  and  rosy  cheeks.  I 
must  say  they  were  very  manly-looking 
boys,  full  of  health  and  spirits.  They 
were  all  dressed  alike  in  sailor  suits, — dark 
blue,  with  bare  necks, — but  of  course  they 
were  made  in  the  slightly  different  German 
style,  and  not  exactly  like  the  sailor  suits 
that  English  boys  wear. 

I  soon  had  cause  to  be  glad  that  the 
Crown  Prince  was  very  shortly  going  to 
school  at  Ploen,  and  that  I  should  only 


MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES     29 

have  him  during  the  holidays  ;  almost  my 
first  idea  of  him  being  that  he  was  ter- 
ribly overbearing  and  tyrannical  with  his 
brothers,  though  with  me  I  must  admit 
he  always  behaved  well. 

My  first  impressions  of  the  Princes' 
characters,  taken  from  my  diary  of  those 
early  days,  may  be  of  interest. 

The  first  extract  runs  as  follows : 

"  The  Crown  Prince  Wilhelm  is  my 
favourite  in  my  heart.  He  is  small  built, 
but  good  looking,  such  a  lovely  complexion, 
and  such  delicious  laughing  eyes,  and  he 
can  give  such  a  wink.  He  is  terribly  ex- 
citable and  sensitive,  and  although  he  does 
not  give  one  the  idea  of  thinking  much  of 
himself,  yet  with  his  brothers  he  is  quite 
conscious  of  his  rights.  He  is  too  fond  of 
his  own  possessions.  He  clings  to  the 
right  of  his  Salon,  and  does  not  like  his 
brothers  to  touch  his  things.  But  in  that 
they  are  all  alike,  and  yet  they  are  fond  of 
each  other.  He  has,  and  indeed  so  have 
all  the  Princes,  the  very  highest  sense  of 
honour  and  obedience  I  have  ever  come 
across.  Prince  Wilhelm  is  very  clever, 


30  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

and  has  great  tact — I  have  noticed  that 
when  discussing  relations  between  England 
and  Germany.  He  is  very  affectionate,  and 
is  essentially  a  gentleman  at  heart." 

So  runs  my  diary.  But  if  I  shut  my 
eyes  and  recall — quite  honestly — scenes 
in  that  schoolroom,  I  see  him  now,  possibly 
a  little  in  the  light  of  recent  events,  as  the 
disturber  of  the  peace.  If  he  came  in 
when  his  younger  brothers  were  with  me, 
and  I  was  reading  aloud  and  they  were  per- 
haps drawing,  he  seemed  to  love  to  disturb 
us ;  irritating  his  brothers  by  spoiling 
what  they  were  doing.  He  was  very 
overbearing  with  them,  and  yet  they 
seemed  to  love  him,  or  it  may  be  that  they 
feared  him !  Once  when  we  were  alone 
and  he  was  in  a  fairly  calm  mood,  I  told 
him  how  difficult  he  made  my  work.  He 
seemed  sorry,  and  I  asked  him  to  try  and 
not  to  tease  his  brothers  so  much.  He 
then  promised  me,  if  I  would  quietly  say 
"T"  (for  teasing),  he  would  try  and  re- 
member. On  future  occasions  I  did  so,  and 
it  seemed  to  answer ;  and  I  got  almost 


MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES     31 

into  the  way  of  calling  him  "  T."  He 
once  signed  a  letter  to  me  by  that  initial. 
In  those  days  he  seemed  to  be  possessed 
of  a  kind  heart,  and  this  habit  of  teasing 
was  a  form  of  nerves ;  for  his  was  a  restless, 
excitable  nature,  like  his  father's,  as  has 
often  been  shown  since.  But,  even  though 
I  liked  him,  he  always  made  me  feel  what 
a  dangerous  and  uncertain  ruler  he  would 
make,  and  what  an  uncompromising  despot, 
if  this  tyrannical  and  teasing  spirit  came 
uppermost.  He  also  seemed  to  hate  any- 
one to  use  or  borrow  anything  belonging 
to  him,  and  this  trait  came  out  more 
strongly  as  he  grew  older.  Should  his 
brothers  take  anything  of  his,  he  regarded 
that  particular  article  as  not  good  enough 
for  him  to  use  in  future,  and  he  would  try 
and  get  it  replaced. 

Diary  Extract. — "  Prince  Eitel  Friedrich, 
or  Fritz  as  he  is  called,  is  a  big  fat  boy,  and 
I  love  him,  I  think,  as  much  as  Wilhelm. 
He  is  such  a  gentle,  long-suffering,  sweet 
lad,  but  quite  cracked  on  soldiering.  He 
knows  all  that  is  possible  about  the  German, 


32  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

French,  and  other  armies.  To  see  his  face 
when  explaining  about  the  various  colours, 
regiments,  and  so  forth,  is  wonderful.  He 
speaks  so  terribly  fast  and  excitedly  he 
cannot  get  his  words  out." 

He  was  a  nice  boy,  and  far  gentler  than 
his  eldest  brother.  But  one  thing  I  felt 
about  him  more  than  any  of  them :  he 
was  so  absolutely  Prussian,  and  always 
for  Prussia  in  every  way.  His  anti-foreign 
feeling — even  as  a  boy — was  amazing.  His 
English  never  seemed  to  improve ;  his  W's 
ever  remained  V's,  and  he  seemed  to 
rather  intend  that  they  should  do  so.  I 
was  less  in  touch  with  him  than  any  of  the 
others.  He  gave  little  trouble,  and  was 
easy  and  peaceful  company — so  long  as  I 
would  talk  soldiers. 

Diary  Extract. — "Prince  Adalbert,  in 
appearance  his  father's  double,  is  all  heart 
and  naughtiness.  Very  rough  and  affection- 
ate, but  more  like  any  other  schoolboy. 
Up  to  lots  of  mischief,  with  no  feeling  for 
others.  Greedy  and  a  bit  troublesome." 


PRINCE   ADALBERT,    AGED    13 


MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES     33 

I  always  liked  him,  though  he  gave  me 
a  pretty  bad  time.  But  that  he  had  a 
loving,  most  forgiving  nature,  there  was 
no  doubt.  He  was  also  a  very  excitable 
and  nervous  character,  quite  beside  him- 
self at  times.  Still,  though  he  was  often 
rather  trying,  the  time  of  repentance  always 
came.  He  had  the  least  poetical  and 
artistic  side  to  his  character  of  any  of  them. 
He  could  appreciate  an  impolite  story 
if  he  happened  to  hear  one,  and  would 
meet  it  with  a  loud  laugh. 

Yet  there  was  something  of  sterling 
good  in  him.  He  was  essentially  the 
Sailor  Prince.  I  should  think  he  would 
never  lack  courage.  I  used  often  to 
wonder  what  his  future  would  be,  and 
remember  saying  to  one  of  the  Court 
ladies  that  I  prophesied  he  would  be  "  all 
goodness  "  or  "  all  badness,"  not  half  and 
half ;  and  that  he  might  possibly  in  a 
moment  of  great  crisis  live  or  die  the  hero 
of  that  moment. 

Diary  Extract. — "August  Wilhelm,  or  '  Au- 
Wi '  as  he  is  called  for  short,  is  a  silly  little 
3 


34  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

person.  A  dear  little  thing,  but  I  should 
describe  him  as  having  very  little  in  him. 
I  never  saw  a  boy  laugh  more.  He  rolls 
on  the  ground  at  the  least  thing." 

I  afterwards  found  I  was  mistaken  in 
my  first  impressions  of  Prince  Au-Wi. 
There  was  much  in  him,  and  he  will  ever 
remain  in  my  mind  as  the  teller  of  fairy 
tales  and  legends,  and  the  reciter  of  poems. 
Many  a  time  did  that  young  Prince  lift 
my  mind  from  its  petty  cares  and  thoughts 
to  spiritual  and  natural  beauties.  He  was 
talented  beyond  the  ordinary,  and  if  he 
does  not  eventually  produce  some  great 
literary  or  artistic  work  I  shall  be  much 
surprised.  He  was  a  deeply  religious-minded 
boy ;  indeed,  they  all  were,  for  their  mother 
the  Empress  read  the  Bible  to  them  every 
day  without  fail,  and  it  would  have  to  be 
something  very  serious  which  would  pre- 
vent her  missing  this  daily  spiritual  talk 
with  her  children. 

But  Prince  Au-Wi,  having  a  more  ro- 
mantic and  artistic  side  to  his  nature, 
was  able  to  express  himself  on  these 


MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES     35 

subjects  better  than  his  brothers.  He 
was  very  fond  of  illustrating  his  ideas  on 
paper  as  he  unburdened  his  soul,  and  I 
remember  two  remarkable  drawings  he 
once  gave  me,  which  I  kept  for  the  sake 
of  the  wonderful  thoughts  expressed  there- 
by. He  was  only  nine  years  old  at  the 
time,  and  as  may  be  imagined  the  drawings 
themselves  were  not  remarkable,  but  the 
thoughts  they  represented  really  were  so. 

He  drew  first  a  Cross,  and  under  the 
Cross  two  angels,  only  one  of  whom  wore 
a  crown.  After  the  idea  of  Dante's  different 
grades  of  hell,  Prince  Au-Wi  had  a  firm 
belief  in  different  grades  of  angels.  There 
were  two  paths  leading  to  the  Cross, 
showing  the  broad  and  narrow  ways.  A 
child  carrying  a  jar  was  mounting  each 
path,  and  he  told  me,  as  he  drew,  that  the 
jars  were  supposed  to  be  filled  with  sorrow. 
The  child  on  the  broad  path  was  over- 
whelmed with  the  weight  of  the  jar,  the 
other  on  the  steep  and  narrow  way  had 
the  water  pouring  out  of  it. 

"  She   is    nearer    where    the    Angel    of 


36  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

Love  is,  she  is  nearer  the  Cross,"  explained 
Prince  Au-Wi. 

That  day  they  had  all  been  to  the 
funeral  of  an  old  white-haired  pastor  to 
whom  they  were  very  devoted,  and  I  think 
perhaps  the  impressive  ceremony  had  in- 
spired the  young  Prince's  ideas  that  night. 
In  describing  the  funeral  these  were  his 
words  : 

"  There  was  a  pure  white  coffin,  but  no 
flowers,  as  he  would  not  have  anything 
sad,  because  he  was  so  glad  to  get  to  heaven, 
and  the  money  which  would  have  been 
spent  on  flowers  he  wanted  given  to  the 
poor.  Mamma  says  his  wife  will  soon  die, 
she  thinks,  because  she  loves  him  so." 
Then  he  described  the  widow  as  "  smoke 
that  puffs  itself  away,"  and  "  a  veil  rent 
in  pieces." 

The  same  evening  the  little  Princess, 
then  a  child  of  about  four  years  old,  when 
speaking  to  the  nurse  had  said,  "  Nana, 
Nana,  we  must  have  champagne;  "  and  on 
being  asked  why,  she  replied,  "  Because 
the  poor  pastor  has  no  more  pain."  Then 


MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES     37 

she  added,  "  The  angels  will  be  so  pleased 
to  have  him  in  heaven  with  his  long  hair." 

The  other  drawing  I  kept  was  that  of  a 
Temple  —  a  Temple  of  Trouble  —  towards 
which  were  going  a  mother  who  had  lost 
her  son,  and  a  little  girl  who  had  lost  her 
mother.  He  represented  their  tears  by  a 
few  pencil  splashes  on  the  ground.  Then 
he  looked  up. 

"  But  if  there  is  a  Temple  of  Sorrow 
there  must  also  be  a  Temple  of  Love ;  the 
two  are  inseparable,"  said  he. 

Now  for  my  diary  extract  about  Prince 
Oscar : 

"  He  is  my  special  chum.  He  is  sweet, 
the  best  looking  of  them  all,  except  for  the 
Crown  Prince.  I  should  say  that  out-and- 
out  he  has  the  most  character.  He  enjoys 
a  joke,  but  he  is  thoughtful.  Very  proud 
(so  are  they  all),  very  sensitive,  and  a  very 
deep  nature.  One  who  would  take  a  long 
time  to  like  you,  and  if  he  once  did  so  he 
would  not  forget  you." 

I  really  looked  on  him  then  as  a  young 
hero,  noble  to  the  core.  A  silent,  deep- 


38  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

thinking,  and  suffering  boy.  What  a  just 
ruler  he  might  have  made  if  "  the  boy  were 
father  to  the  man." 

One  afternoon  I  drove  with  him  to 
Paritz,  Prince  Henry's  place.  In  the 
grounds  we  came  to  a  dark  passage.  He 
did  not  know  where  it  led  to ;  going  first,  I 
came  to  a  sort  of  vault  or  grave,  with  a 
stone  on  which  was  engraved  "  Remember 
the  Departed."  He  had  been  full  of  fun 
and  very  jolly,  but  when  he  came  across 
this  stone  I  cannot  describe  the  look  on  his 
face.  Like  lightning,  he  pulled  off  his  cap, 
saying,  "  We  must  not  play  near  here ; 
come  farther  away." 

In  the  early  days  of  my  coming  to  the 
Court  Prince  Oscar  happened  to  be  delicate 
and  had  to  lie  down  a  good  deal,  and  so  I  saw 
much  of  him  and  got  into  his  very  thoughts. 
Once  he  said  to  me  : 

"  If  ever  I  have  sons  they  shall  go  into 
the  Navy." 

"  Why  ?  "  I  said.  "  Do  you  like  the  idea 
of  life  in  the  Navy  better  than  in  the 
Army  ?  " 


MY  PUPILS—THE  PRINCES     39 

"  No,"  he  replied,  "  not  that  exactly." 

He  seemed  reluctant  to  give  his  reasons 
for  preferring  the  Navy  as  the  calling  of 
his  future  sons,  and  I  did  not  press  him. 
He  was  silent  for  a  minute,  then  he  said  : 

"  If  I  were  a  father,  I  should  love  my 
sons  too  much  to  bear  to  part  with  them, 
and  in  the  Navy  I  should  not  be  so  likely 
to  lose  them  as  in  the  Army.  What  a  good 
father  papa  is,  isn't  he  ?  He  is  always  so 
kind  and  plays  with  us.  But  you  know," 
he  added  thoughtfully,  "  papa  is  very 
anxious,  though  no  one  has  told  me  so. 
I  am  glad  I  haven't  got  to  be  an  Emperor  ; 
I  don't  want  to  be  an  Emperor  :  all  I  want 
is  to  be  just  a  gentleman." 

I  recall  these  words  with  interest,  for 
this  was  the  Prince  who  afterwards  made 
the  morganatic  marriage  with  Countess  Ina 
von  Bassewitz,  a  relative  of  the  Countess 
of  that  name  who  was  in  my  time  the 
youngest  and  most  beautiful  lady-in-wait- 
ing, and  with  whom  I  was  great  friends. 

That  he  had  the  courage  thus  to  make 
love  victorious  over  the  trials  of  a  morgan- 


40  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

atic  marriage  I  can  well  believe.  His  was 
to  my  mind  quite  the  deepest  character 
and  the  most  affectionate  nature  of  all  the 
Kaiser's  sons. 

To  return  to  my  diary  extracts  : 

"  Prince  Joachim  and  the  Princess  are 
in  the  nursery — funny  little  things,  rather 
wild  and  unmanageable,  slapping  one's 
hand  when  they  say  '  How  do  you  do.' 
The  Princess  is  not  pretty,  though  I  have 
seen  her  look  so  once  or  twice." 

Although  it  was  intended  that  I  should 
take  charge  of  Prince  Joachim,  I  never 
really  did  so,  owing  to  the  difficulties  with 
the  English  nurse  which  I  have  mentioned 
before. 

He  was  the  one  Prince  solely  in  her  care, 
and  she  would  not  yield  him  without  a 
keen  struggle.  Consequently  I  never  really 
had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  him,  and  what 
I  saw  of  him  I  cannot  say  I  liked.  He  and 
his  little  sister  were  much  with  each  other, 
and  when  alone  together  he  would  tease 
her  rather  unmercifully.  Perhaps  this  long- 


MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES     41 

continued  nursery  influence  and  com- 
panionship with  a  younger  sister  did  much 
to  make  him  the  weak,  frightened  little 
cry-baby  that  I  then  thought  him.  If  left 
alone  for  a  minute,  he  would  scream,  and 
go  on  screaming  till  someone  came.  When 
I  would  find  him  like  this  and  tell  him  there 
was  nothing  to  be  afraid  of,  the  old  English 
nurse  would  arrive  on  the  scene  and  re- 
sent my  presence,  generally  managing  to 
insinuate  that  it  was  I  who  had  upset  the 
child.  It  used  to  hurt  me  very  much  that 
my  only  compatriot  living  within  the 
Palace  precincts  should  prove  such  an 
enemy.  Later,  when  Prince  Joachim 
attained  the  proud  age  of  having  a  tutor  ap- 
pointed all  to  himself,  it  was  my  duty  to  sit 
with  him  while  he  had  his  lessons.  Often, 
as  the  hour  approached,  he  would  begin 
to  whimper  and  take  refuge  under  the 
sofa,  from  which  the  tutor  or  myself  had 
the  pleasure  of  hauling  him  out. 

He  also  seemed  possessed  of  an  extra- 
ordinary trait — most  unlike  a  boy — of  not 
being  able  to  bear  to  have  soiled  or  dirty 


42  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

hands.  I  remember  once  the  Princes  were 
playing  in  the  garden,  digging  for  some- 
thing, when  little  Prince  Joachim  began  to 
scream  because  he  had  some  mud  on  his 
hands.  His  brothers  took  care  to  rub  them 
well  with  earth,  in  which  drastic  form  of 
correction  I  assisted  :  his  attitude  seemed 
so  unnatural  in  a  child,  and  I  wanted  to 
teach  him  a  more  normal,  boyish  view  of 
dirt !  I  believe  he  grew  less  babyish  as 
he  got  older,  but  from  the  age  of  five  to 
eight  years,  while  I  was  there,  he  certainly 
gave  little  promise  of  developing  much 
character. 

His  family  nickname  at  that  time  was 
"  Pykie,"  and  the  Princess  generally  called 
him  by  it.  One  day  he  was  ill,  and  was 
ordered  by  the  doctor  to  take  a  powder. 
There  was  great  consternation  in  the 
nursery,  he  and  his  little  sister  being  of 
opinion  that  he  couldn't  possibly  be 
intended  to  swallow  powder,  since,  as 
Prince  Joachim  put  it,  "  That  is  what  you 
fill  a  gun  with  !  "  The  poor  little  Princess 
was  quite  unhappy,  and  pleadingly  said 


MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES     43 

to    the    doctor,    "  You    won't    shoot    my 
Pykie,  will  you? " 

As  for  the  little  Princess,  she  was  a 
charming  child,  and  some  of  her  remarks 
caused  me  much  amusement.  I  was  very 
seldom  with  jjer,  but  on  one  occasion  I  had 
to  take  charge  of  her  while  driving  round 
the  fortress  of  Metz,  in  Alsace-Lorraine.  It 
is  well  known  that  the  Kaiser  is  not  very 
much  loved  there,  but  notwithstanding 
this  the  inhabitants  had  to  make  some 
show  of  loyalty,  and  his  little  daughter 
being  a  young  and  innocent  child,  they 
lavished  most  of  their  welcome  on  her  : 
she  was  the  object  of  far  greater  acclama- 
tions than  the  Kaiser  himself.  A  tremen- 
dous number  of  bouquets  were  flung  into 
her  carriage,  it  was  impossible  to  hol'd  them 
all.  The  poor  child  had  to  keep  con- 
tinually smiling  and  bowing  her  acknow- 
ledgments, till  she. looked  so  tired  I  wished 
I  could  do  it  for  her. 

"  Must  I   go  on?"    she   asked  wearily. 
"  Haven't  I  finished  yet  ?" 

There  was  still  some  way  to  go,  and  more 


44  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

cheering  crowds  to  drive  through,  but  the 
child  bravely  fought  her  weariness  till  we 
got  back  to  the  Palace  gates. 

I  do  not  remember  any  other  occasion 
upon  which  I  took  charge  of  her ;  it  was 
of  course  the  boys,  and  particularly  Princes 
Adalbert,  August  Wilhelm,  and  Oscar, — out 
of  the  nursery,  but  not  yet  at  school, — 
who  were  especially  in  my  care.  When 
the  two  eldest  were  at  home,  though,  I  found 
that  my  work  included  the  composition  of 
their  English  letters  to  their  grandmother 
the  Empress  Frederick,  and  to  their  great- 
grandmother  Queen  Victoria.  Prince  Adal- 
bert also  had  to  do  his  share,  and  well 
do  I  remember  one  Sunday  afternoon 
when  he  had  to  write  in  English  to  the 
Empress  Frederick.  He  was  terribly  upset 
at  having  to  work  so  hard  on  a  Sunday, 
and  we  had  rather  a  tussle  over  it,  but  in 
the  end  managed  to  produce  a  nice  long 
letter,  prettily  expressed  and  full  of  love 
and  thanks,  which,  however,  I  fear,  he  was 
far  from  feeling  at  the  moment. 

Some  of  the  penalties  of  being  a  Prince, 


MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES     45 

it  seemed  to  me,  were  the  unsuitable  gifts 
that  sometimes  arrived.  As  an  example, 
I  remember  a  huge  volume  of  Ball's  "  As- 
tronomy "  which  was  given  to  the  Crown 
Prince.  It  was  truly  hard  to  sit  down  and 
write  a  long,  grateful  letter  in  a  foreign 
tongue.  I  inwardly  sympathized  with  the 
Prince  when  in  despair  he  said  to  me, 
"  Let's  burn  the  beastly  thing  and  forget 
all  about  it." 

The  Crown  Prince's  effort  of  thanks  for 
Queen  Victoria's  Christmas  present  to  him  at 
the  age  of  about  fifteen  I  also  remember  very 
well.  He  declared  that  he  would  not  pre- 
tend to  be  grateful  for  stiff  books  which 
he  could  not  get  through,  but  as  in  this 
particular  instance  it  was  a  book  on  the 
Crimean  War,  which  he  had  studied  at 
school  during  the  previous  term,  we  were 
able  to  evolve  a  very  nice  letter  of  thanks. 
The  same  evening  I  had  to  help  Prince 
Fritz  with  his  ;  but  it  was  easier  with  him, 
as  he  was  quite  amenable  and  ready  to  write 
anything  one  told  him. 

They  were   quick-tempered  boys,   often 


46  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

fighting  with  each  other,  both  in  temper 
and  in  fun.  They  attempted  many 
practical  jokes  on  their  governors  and 
on  me ;  but  when  they  became  too 
excited  I  soon  stopped  it,  as  I  made  up 
my  mind  from  the  first  that  it  would  be 
most  derogatory  to  my  dignity  and  self- 
respect  to  stand  being  pulled  about  by 
them,  even  in  fun.  But  I  found  nothing 
really  vicious  in  them,  and  their  faults 
were  those  of  boys  the  world  over.  They 
had,  except  the  Crown  Prince,  very  little 
idea  of  their  own  importance  as  sons  of  the 
German  Emperor,  and  but  small  prescience 
of  the  exalted  positions  they  were  destined 
to  hold.  I  think  this  was  the  most  delight- 
ful part  about  them,  and  a  great  proof  of 
the  simplicity  of  their  upbringing.  Prince 
Oscar  once  informed  me  that  he  had  been 
seriously  thinking  over  what  he  would  do 
to  earn  his  living  when  he  grew  up,  and  he 
had  finally  made  up  his  mind  to  become  a 
droshky-driver.  I  could  not  outwardly 
laugh  at  the  child's  solemn  and  earnest 
tone,  but  I  felt  that  even  for  nine  years 


MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES     47 

old  he  had  but  little  opinion  of  his  high 
destiny. 

The  others  would  tell  me  what  they  in- 
tended to  be  when  they  grew  up, — equally 
humble  callings,  I  think, — but  Oscar's 
choice  is  the  only  one  I  happen  to  have 
recorded. 

I  was  instructed  to  teach  them  kindness 
towards  the  poor,  and  not  patronize  such 
folk  when  they  spoke  to  them,  as  a  Prince 
might  be  no  better  than  a  pauper  in  the 
sight  of  the  Almighty. 

I  did  not  have  much  difficulty  in  en- 
forcing this  precept ;  they  were  naturally 
kind-hearted  boys,  and  had  inherited  their 
parents'  easy  way  of  talking  with  their 
humbler  subjects. 

I  once  got  permission  to  take  the  Princes 
outside  the  Palace  grounds,  but  it  turned 
out  to  be  so  great  a  responsibility  that  I 
did  not  repeat  it.  .  We  were  in  a  field  on 
this  occasion  with  Prince  Adalbert.  No 
one  appeared  to  be  in  sight,  when  suddenly 
a  rough-looking  man  walked  out  from  the 
hedge  and  asked  whether  we  knew  of  any 


48  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

work  for  him,  as  he  was  hungry  and  there 
must  be  work  for  the  rich  around  to  give 
him.  The  man's  general  demeanour  was 
one  of  defiance,  it  seemed  to  me.  I  was 
always  careful  to  let  the  Princes  fear  no 
one,  and  had  never  touched  on  the  topic 
of  anarchy.  The  Princes  were  specially 
well  brought  up  to  take  interest  in  the  poor. 
On  this  occasion,  Prince  Adalbert,  not  un- 
naturally, resented  such  rude  address,  and 
started  to  walk  on,  ignoring  the  man.  In 
a  low  tone  I  asked  him  to  turn  round 
and  express  his  regret  that  the  man  should 
find  himself  in  such  circumstances,  which 
he  at  once  did — his  kind-heartedness  to- 
wards the  poor  instantly  reasserting  itself. 
This  seemed  to  appease  the  tramp,  but  I 
well  remember  how  anxious  I  felt  during 
the  interview,  not  knowing  what  might 
ensue. 

On  another  occasion,  when  out  walking 
with  Prince  Oscar,  we  met  a  strange-look- 
ing man  in  some  sort  of  uniform.  We  were 
in  the  vicinity  of  Wild  Park.  This  man 
looked  rather  like  an  officer.  He  stopped 


MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES     49 

us,  and  asked  whether  we  had  come  from 
the  station,  and  if  we  could  inform  him 
when  the  Emperor  would  be  returning,  as 
he  was  then  away.  I  took  care  to  give  all 
the  answers  myself,  the  Prince  being  quite 
young,  and  replied  that  I  knew  nothing 
about  the  Emperor's  movements.  There- 
upon he  went  away,  but  I  noticed  him 
watching  us  for  some  time,  so  I  manoeuvred 
until  I  got  near  one  of  the  gates  where  was 
the  usual  sentry.  Upon  this  the  man  dis- 
appeared. After  these  two  experiences, 
though  I  made  no  mention  of  them,  I  de- 
termined to  keep  within  the  grounds,  even 
though  my  suspicions  might  have  been 
unfounded. 

Prince  Wilhelm  was  never  allowed  to  be 
called  the  Crown  Prince  while  I  was  there ; 
I  think  it  was  only  on  his  eighteenth  birth- 
day that  he  gained  that  distinction  and 
became  entitled  to  a  separate  establish- 
ment of  his  own.  But,  in  spite  of  this,  one 
felt  the  difference  between  him  and  his 
brothers,  and  one  never  had  a  chance  of 
forgetting  that  he  was  the  heir  to  the 

4 


50  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

throne.  Even  the  note-paper  supplied  to 
his  private  apartments  in  the  Neues  Palais 
had  "  Crown  Prince  "  embossed  upon  it, 
and  woe  betide  his  brothers  if  they  dared 
to  use  it ! 

Each  Prince,  being  bullied  or  teased  by 
his  elder,  would  in  turn  take  it  out  upon 
his  younger  brothers  ;  though  I  ought  to 
add  that  I  do  not  remember  Prince  Fritz, 
the  second  boy,  giving  much  trouble  in 
this  respect.  He  was  a  favourite  son,  and 
in  my  time  he  was  quite  a  nice  boy.  The 
younger  ones  managed  to  stand  up  for  them- 
selves, and  many  and  smart  were  the  repar- 
tees they  dared  to  fling  back  at  their  elders. 
Oscar  was  three  or  four  years  younger  than 
Adalbert,  by  whom  he  was  chiefly  teased, 
yet  he  managed  to  inflict  a  wound  with  his 
tongue  which  nearly  reduced  his  elder  to 
tears.  I  took  each  of  them  to  task  privately 
over  this,  and  was  somewhat  amused  by 
little  Prince  Oscar's  statement  that  he  had 
"  tried  kindness  and  found  that  it  some- 
times succeeded." 

"  I   know  Adalbert   has  weak  nerves," 


MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES     51 

he  added,  "  so  I  won't  be  unkind  to  him 
any  more," 

This  young  Prince  was  not  yet  ten  when 
he  made  this  diagnosis  of  his  thirteen-year- 
old  brother's  nerves — the  very  last  thing 
from  which  boys  of  that  age  might  be 
expected  to  suffer.  I  thought  it  so  funny 
that  I  could  hardly  keep  a  straight  face, 
but  Prince  Oscar  did  not  notice  my  efforts 
to  conceal  my  amusement. 

They  were  always  very  sorry  for  their 
faults,  and  being  brought  up  with  the  idea 
that  it  showed  moral  generosity  to  admit 
themselves  in  the  wrong,  they  generally 
apologized  for  their  misdeeds.  Many  were 
the  badly  spelt  English  notes,  scrawled 
in  a  boyish  hand,  that  would  be  sent  up 
to  my  room  by  a  lackey,  and  solemnly 
presented  on  a  silver  tray.  "  I  bag  your 
pardon,  Miss  Howard,"  was  the  most  com- 
plete apology  I  ever  got  from  that  master 
of  English — at  any  rate  "  as  she  is  spoke  " 
— the  Crown  Prince.  It  was  Prince  Adal- 
bert who  wrote  to  me,  "  Don't  be  said," 
when  I  was  not  very  well ;  and  the  boy's 


52  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

gentle  sympathy,  expressed  in  this  droll 
way,  really  made  me  feel  less  sad. 

Of  books  the  Princes  were  never  tired, 
and  they  undoubtedly  were  considerably 
influenced  by  them.  So  much  so  that  their 
behaviour  was  decidedly  affected  for  two 
or  three  days  by  the  reading  of  a  saintly 
story.  Books  by  Dean  Farrar  were  great 
favourites.  It  was  my  custom  to  read 
aloud  to  the  Princes,  and  I  was  once  inter- 
rupted while  reading  "  Eric  "  by  one  of  them 
suddenly  standing  up  and  exclaiming  furi- 
ously, "  I  wish  I  could  get  hold  of  the 
offender."  It  was  genuine  wrath  on  the 
Prince's  part,  and  it  was  a  good  thing  that 
the  offender  was  not  present. 

I  of  course  aways  read  through  the 
books  beforehand  in  order  to  eliminate 
words  or  episodes  which  did  not  seem  to  be 
suitable.  When  we  were  going  through 
"  Julian  Home,"  by  Farrar,  Prince  Adalbert 
was  in  a  mischievous  stage  of  his  boyhood, 
and  I  decided  to  omit  a  love-scene  which  is 
in  that  book.  In  the  way  I  read  it,  the 
hero  went  up  to  his  lady-love,  saying, 


MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES     53 

"  Will  you  marry  me  ?  "  and  with  a  prompt, 
decisive  answer  she  replied,  "  Yes."  This 
adaptation  of  the  scene  appealed  to  Prince 
Adalbert,  who  jumped  up  with  the  words, 
"  I  have  often  wondered  what  I  should  say 
if  I  wanted  to  marry  a  girl — now  I  know." 
I  wonder  if  the  scene  recalled  itself  to  him 
when  his  betrothal  took  place  not  so  long 
ago. 

The  visiting  clergyman  was  a  young  man 
named  Herr  Kessler.  He  seemed  to  ex- 
ercise very  considerable  influence  over  the 
Princes. 

And  here  I  might  say  that  there  is  a  very 
great  difference  in  the  social  standing  of 
the  German  clergy,  and  also  lawyers,  as  com- 
pared with  our  own.  They  are  regarded  as 
outside  the  Court  circle  altogether,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  they  play  such 
an  important  part  in  the  life  of  the  Royal 
Family. 

The  preparation  for  confirmation  alone 
was  a  great  responsibility.  This  prepara- 
tion is  not  a  matter  of  a  few  months  or 
weeks,  as  with  us,  but  of  one  or  even  two 


54  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

years.  On  the  day  of  confirmation  the 
candidate  must  write  out  his  religious 
convictions,  and  make  a  statement  of  his 
resolution  for  future  .  behaviour.  This 
written  declaration  was  considered  of  vital 
importance,  especially  by  the  Princes' 
parents.  It  had  to  be  written  solely  by 
the  young  Prince  himse1^  and  no  assistance 
or  suggestions  were  made  to  him. 

Examination-times  were  perfect  terrors 
to  the  Princes,  and,  may  I  add,  to  myself. 
As  a  rule  the  Kaiserin  sat  all  through  the 
hours  of  this  tortuous  examination.  The 
last  year  I  was  there,  it  fell  to  my  lot  to 
attend,  as  the  Kaiserin  and  her  ladies  were 
all  down  with  influenza.  It  was  really 
piteous  to  see  how  nervous  the  Princes  were. 
I  sat  in  a  room  adjoining  and  could  hear 
their  answers.  One  at  a  time  was  ex- 
amined, and  during  their  waiting-time  I 
did  my  best  to  divert  their  thoughts  and 
cheer  them.  It  lasted  two  days,  and 
directly  the  finish  came  I  well  remember 
their  overpowering  joy  —  pick-a-backing 
each  other  and  doing  no  end  of  curious 


MY  PUPILS—THE  PRINCES     55 

tricks.  The  result  at  that  examination 
was  that  they  each  got  a  remove  in  class. 
Though  working  always  alone,  they  had  a 
fixed  standard  of  work  to  reach  according 
to  their  age. 

Their  love  for  both  their  parents  was 
intense,  although  they  naturally  turned 
to  their  mother  when  in  need  of  sympathy, 
rather  than  to  their  father,  who  was  apt 
to  be  over-stern  with  them  at  times.  I 
find  an  extract  in  my  diary,  early  in  April 
1898,  when  the  Kaiserin  had  not  been 
very  well  and  was  ordered  to  rest  quietly 
at  Homburg-vor-der-H6he,  only  the  two 
youngest  children  being  allowed  to  join 
her  after  Easter.  One  of  the  governors  had 
told  me  I  had  better  prepare  the  boys  for 
the  fact  that  they  were  not  to  go.  They 
had  no  particular  fondness  for  this  Palace, 
their  sorrow  was  at  being  away  from  their 
mother,  rather  than  at  not  being  allowed 
to  go  to  the  Palace  in  question. 

My  diary  runs  thus  : 

"  I  tell  the  boys  they  may  not  be  allowed 
to  go.  All  three  burst  into  tears,  or  rather 


56  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

Au-Wi  and  Oscar  indulge  in  loud  sobs  ; 
while  Prince  Adalbert  gets  very  excited, 
working  off  his  grief  in  anger,  and  finally 
disappears  to  his  room.  Gradually  I  com- 
fort the  two  youngest.  Oscar  gets  very 
quiet,  and  just  lies  on  the  sofa  and  cries. 
Au-Wi  goes  on  sobbing,  and  says  he  will 
promise  to  try  and  bear  it.  Then  I  go  to 
see  what  Adalbert  is  up  to,  and  I  find  him 
writing  furiously  in  his  diary.  Supper  is 
announced,  and  I  send  away  the  lackeys, 
saying  we  will  wait  on  ourselves  ;  it  is  only 
too  evident  that  the  boys  have  been 
crying,  and  servants  must  not  look  on  the 
grief  of  Princes  who  are  old  enough  to 
control  themselves.  After  supper  they 
feel  better,  though  they  are  still  rather 
quiet.  The  governor  comes  in,  and  as  soon 
as  he  has  gone  out  again,  Prince  Adalbert 
gets  quite  merry,  and  for  the  benefit  of 
his  younger  brothers  makes  superhuman 
efforts  to  play  the  piano  first  with  his  nose 
and  then  with  his  toes  !  He  falls  off  his 
chair  occasionally,  and  the  younger  boys 
cannot  help  laughing  at  his  absurd  antics ; 
so  they  all  go  to  bed  much  happier." 

One  very  noticeable  trait  in  these  Princes 


MY  PUPILS— THE  PRINCES     57 

was  their  capability  of  silence.  For  such 
young  boys  it  often  astonished  me. 

For  instance,  if  in  their  presence  differ- 
ences arose  between  any  of  the  courtiers 
(and  naturally  few  words  would  be  spoken), 
it  was  wonderful  how  quickly  they  under- 
stood friction  was  going  on.  Above  all, 
nothing  would  induce  them  to  make  any 
comment.  They  also  had  a  habit  of 
becoming  apparently  extra  united  to  each 
other,  should  one  of  them  be  under  reproof 
or  blamed  for  anything.  It  was  quite 
amusing  to  watch  the  result.  They  might, 
at  the  time,  have  been  quite  unfriendly 
with  each  other,  but  should  a  governor 
walk  in  and  find  fault  with  one  of  them, 
they  were  all  up  in  arms  against  him. 
And  when  left  to  themselves,  the  causer  of 
offence  became  suddenly  the  favourite  and 
most  popular  brother. 

It  was  from  babyhood  engraved  in  the 
young  Princes'  minds  that  to  have  one  of 
"  papa's  photographs  "  was  something  of 
great  honour.  And  often  did  they  present 
me  with  the  little  pictures  of  the  Kaiser 


58  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

taken  from  bon-bon  boxes,  expecting  me  to 
be  made  very  happy  by  them. 

There  was  quite  an  affection  between 
myself  and  these  three  Princes,  and  for 
two  or  three  years  after  I  left  they  often 
wrote  to  me ;  but  since  then  I  have  lost 
touch  with  them,  and  have  not  been  able 
to  follow  the  development  of  their  char- 
acters. From  what  one  hears,  it  seems 
that  the  high  qualities  expressed  in  their 
early  boyhood  have  been  somewhat  ex- 
tinguished as  they  grew  to  manhood,  but  of 
that  I  am  no  competent  judge. 


CHAPTER   III 
THE  CRADLE  OF  MILITARISM 

MUCH  has  been  said,  more  has  been 
written,  and  more  ink  will  yet  be 
spilt   over    this   eternal    truth   of 
Prussia. 

Ink,  did  I  say,  printer's  ink  ?  The 
casualty  list  in  my  morning  newspaper 
tells  me  that  the  history  of  Prussian 
militarism  is  written  in  letters  of  blood, 
the  blood  of  my  own  kindred,  as  well  as 
that  of  nearly  every  nation  of  the  world. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  I  set  out  here  to  tell 
the  story  of  my  young  charges'  early  life, 
when  all  was  more  or  less  peace  and  good- 
will between  my  country  and  theirs.  I 
should  not  tell  my  story  truly  did  I  omit 
the  all  -  pervading  influence  of  militarism 
in  which  they  were  cradled  from  early 
infancy.  Heredity  apart,  their  environ- 


60  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

ment  alone  was  sufficient  to  produce  the 
most  martial  spirit  that  Prussian  junkerdom 
could  wish  for. 

No  sooner  does  a  Royal  infant  enter  this 
world  than  the  booming  of  the  guns' 
salute  announces  the  joyous  fact  to  the 
waiting  populace  without.  Everyone  counts 
breathlessly  up  to  twenty-one,  then  there 
is  a  moment  of  still  greater  tension;  for 
if  the  salute  stops  at  twenty-one  it  is 
only  a  Princess  that  has  been  born  to  the 
house  of  Hohenzollern.  But  as  the  sound 
of  the  twenty-second  gun  reverberates  on 
the  still  air,  the  joy  of  the  good  Berlin 
folk  knows  no  bounds,  for  a  Prince  has 
been  born  to  the  German  Empire. 

The  guns  go  booming  on ;  a  few  enthusi- 
asts count  them  right  up  to  a  hundred  and 
one,  the  salute  by  which  an  infant  Prince 
is  honoured  in  Germany.  It  is  a  fraction 
under  five  times  as  much  as  that  accorded 
to  his  baby  sister  ;  but  he  is  fifty  times 
more  important,  for  even  though  he  may 
never  be  called  upon  to  occupy  the  throne 
he  will  be  a  man  and  a  soldier. 


THE  CRADLE  OF  MILITARISM    61 

Born  to  the  sound  of  cannon  and  to 
the  roll  of  drums,  the  military  proclivities 
of  these  Prussian  Princes  were  early  de- 
veloped. 

Almost  as  soon  as  they  could  toddle 
uniforms  were  made  for  them,  and  at  the 
age  the  ordinary  baby  learns  to  wave  its 
hand  and  lisp  "  Ta-ta  "  they  were  taught 
the  stiffest  and  smartest  of  military  salutes. 
Their  first,  and  practically  their  only  toys 
were  tin  soldiers,  cannons,  forts,  anything 
and  everything  calculated  to  develop 
martial  ardour.  Of  these  toys  they  never 
tired,  their  interest  being  stimulated  by 
their  various  governors,  who  used  to  spend 
much  time  in  distinctly  uncomfortable  and 
undignified  attitudes,  giving  the  benefit 
of  their  expert  military  advice.  One  of 
them  informed  me  with  much  solemnity 
that  the  old  Emperor  William  I  was  a 
great  believer  in  tin  soldiers  for  the  educa- 
tion of  boys.  This  remark  struck  me  as 
humorous  and  I  had  some  ado  to  keep  a 
straight  face,  until  he  explained  that  it 
was  on  account  of  the  exercise  of  imagina- 


62  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

tion  in  making  battle  plans  and  the  self- 
control  and  patience  demanded  by  the 
constant  toppling  over  of  the  tiny  toy 
soldiers.  I  felt  inclined  to  ask  him  if  that 
was  the  reason  they  were  not  made  suffici- 
ently firmly  to  stand  up  properly,  but  I 
refrained. 

There  was  one  set  of  each  regiment  of 
the  German  Army,  all  other  European 
countries  being  represented,  an  appalling 
amount  of  them  altogether.  Many  and 
great  were  the  battles  fought,  always 
ending  in  victory  for  the  Prussian  arms, 
generally  a  defeat  for  the  French,  and 
sometimes,  but  not  so  often,  for  the  British. 

Oftentimes  they  would  vary  the  war 
game  by  drawing  pictures  for  my  special 
edification,  and  many  a  time  have  I  seen 
my  countrymen  absolutely  annihilated  on 
paper — very  small  British  soldiers  lying  flat, 
and  huge  Prussian  Uhlans  walking  over 
them.  It  was  their  great  delight  at  one 
time  to  thus  try  and  kindle  my  wrath,  but 
I  did  not  rise  to  it  as  they  hoped.  In  this 
particular  artistic  form  of  militarism  I  felt 


THE  CRADLE  OF  MILITARISM    63 

that  they  were  sometimes  a  little  unkind, 
but  never  intentionally  so  ;  and  after  all 
they  were  but  boys.  The  old  platitude 
"  Boys  will  be  boys  "  is  very  true,  be  they 
Princes  or  paupers. 

Of  course  they  drew  other  objects  besides 
soldiers,  but  the  martial  idea  was  pre- 
dominant. 

The  Crown  Prince  nearly  always  drew 
cavalry,  and  scarcely  any  picture  of  his 
have  I  seen  without  a  man  on  horseback. 
Prince  Fritz,  whose  martial  zeal  I  have 
mentioned  before,  used  to  depict  the  stiffest 
and  squarest  of  German  infantrymen,  with 
practically  every  detail  of  uniform  and 
equipment  complete.  His  soldiers  were 
nearly  always  carrying  their  packs,  and 
otherwise  loaded  up  ready  for  active 
service.  Ships  and  sailors  he  likewise 
drew  with  some  ability,  but  that  of  course 
was  the  special  forte  of  Adalbert,  the 
Sailor  Prince,  who  would  occasionally  find 
fault  on  technical  grounds  with  his  brother's 
nautical  details. 

Their    knowledge    of    European    armies 


64  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

was  really  wonderful ;  they  seemed  to  have 
the  naval  and  military  strength  of  each 
Power  at  their  fingers'  ends.  I  remember 
being  surprised  by  Prince  Oscar,  then  only 
nine  years  old,  voicing  his  opinion  in  quite 
a  grown-up  manner  on  the  question  of 
possible  war  between  France  and  Russia. 
I  think,  though,  he  said  they  would  even- 
tually fight  against  each  other.  History 
proves  him  wrong,  France  and  Russia  being 
our  two  most  powerful  Allies  in  the  great 
war  of  to-day. 

These  opinions  they  imbibed  from  their 
governors  under  whose  care  they  were 
placed  from  the  tender  age  of  seven  years. 
The  same  system  is  in  force  for  every 
Prussian  Prince,  whose  military  governor 
is  responsible  for  his  general  upbringing 
and  education.  With  the  Princes,  as  I 
think  I  have  already  mentioned,  the  head 
governor  was  a  general,  and  each  governor 
descended  in  rank  downwards  according 
to  the  age  and  position  of  his  charge. 
Thus  with  the  five  eldest  Princes  there 
were  five  grades  of  officers,  descending  in 


A   SNOC   LITTLE   KOONER 

(A  SNUG   LITTLE   CORNER) 

A  drawing  by  the  Crown  Princ 


THE  CRADLE  OF  MILITARISM    65 

rank  from  general  to  lieutenant.  I  was 
told  that  they  often  gave  up  the  chance  of 
promotion  by  thus  remaining  away  from 
their  regiments,  but  I  have  no  doubt  they 
had  their  compensations  !  Their  ideas  of 
training  were  Spartan,  in  emulation  of 
Frederick  the  Great's  harsh  boyhood,  each 
governor  seeing  in  his  charge  an  embryo 
great  man,  who  would  ripen  to  glorious 
maturity  by  means  of  his  stern  training, 
yielding,  they  hoped,  to  his  governor  the 
credit. 

That  this  severe  regime  was  productive 
of  much  friction  between  the  Kaiser  and 
the  Kaiserin,  the  governors  and  myself, 
myself  and  the  tyrant  of  the  nursery,  may 
well  be  imagined.  Indeed,  I  have  already 
described  my  difficulties  with  the  nursery 
sphere  of  influence. 

The  governors'  sole  object  was  to  edu- 
cate their  charges  for  a  military  life.  They 
subjected  them  to  the  severest  discipline 
and  hardships,  and  were  resentful  when  I 
found  occasion  to  suggest  that  they  had 
set  the  young  Princes  tasks  far  beyond 
5 


66  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

them,  and  sometimes  even  detrimental  to 
their  health. 

One  morning  the  Princes  had  to  get  up 
at  an  unearthly  hour  in  order  to  scale  a 
high  mountain  and  see  the  sunrise.  They 
related  their  experiences  to  me  on  their 
return,  and  I  learnt  that  Prince  Au-Wi  felt 
very  giddy  on  the  way  up,  and  suddenly 
turned  white.  His  governor  just  splashed 
his  face  with  water  and  made  him  go  on 
with  the  climb  at  once.  They  also  told 
me  that  Prince  Oscar  nearly  fell  asleep 
when  driving  back  (mercifully  they  were 
not  made  to  walk  down  again),  but  he 
indignantly  denied  the  imputation — in  fact, 
to  quote  his  own  words,  "  I  did  not  fall 
asleep  !  I  was  determined  not  to,  as  then 
they  would  all  say  that  I  had  slept  through 
fatigue,  and  what  a  disgrace  that  would 
be !  "  These  military  officers  were  not 
really  fit  to  judge  what  children  could  or 
could  not  do,  but  it  was  difficult  for  me  to 
tell  them  so. 

I  was  supposed  to  report  to  them  when- 
ever the  Princes  did  not  behave  as  they 


THE  CRADLE  OF  MILITARISM    67 

should,  and  I  did  so ;  but  the  wrongdoing 
was  treated  so  severely  that  I  often  let 
things  pass  with  a  gentle  reprimand  from 
my  own  lips,  hoping  to  save  them  from 
such  stern  military  ideas  of  punishment. 

The  governors  kept  a  mark-book  for  the 
boys,  but  not  an  ordinary  one.  Each 
mark  was  for  "  merit,"  and  far  from  easy 
to  attain.  Only  once  did  I  enter  one  in 
this  book,  and  it  was  as  if  I  had  signed  my 
name  to  an  important  document.  I  was 
interviewed  by  the  head  governor,  ques- 
tioned as  to  whether  the  Prince  in  question 
(I  forget  now  which  one  it  was)  deserved 
the  mark,  and  upon  my  detailed  report  the 
fiat  went  forth  that  the  boy  was  not  suffi- 
ciently worthy,  and  the  mark  was  ordered 
to  be  struck  out  of  the  book. 

Each  Prince  had  to  get  a  certain  number 
of  marks,  otherwise  all  amusements  were 
stopped,  and  they  were  not  allowed  to  see 
any  friends  or  go  to  any  picnics  that  might 
be  on.  There  were  generally  one  or  two 
of  them  short  of  the  requisite  number  of 
marks,  and  each  governor  would  take 


68  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

possession  of  his  Prince  and  ride  and  drive 
with  him  alone,  the  latter  being  considered 
in  disgrace  and  not  allowed  to  be  with  his 
brothers  or  with  me.  In  this  connexion 
I  used  to  think  of  the  old  adage,  "  It's  an 
ill  wind  that  blows  nobody  any  good  "  ;  for, 
though  I  felt  sorry  for  them,  I  was  often 
relieved  of  my  charges  in  this  way,  and 
gained  a  little  leisure  through  their  short- 
comings. 

September  2,  the  anniversary  of 
Sedan,  was  always  a  great  day.  A  holiday 
was  given  to  commemorate  the  victory, 
and  early  on  my  first  Sedan  morning  it 
was  suggested  to  me  that  I  should  send  up 
a  bouquet  to  the  Princes  and  express  my 
congratulations  to  the  Prussian  Army.  I 
should  never  have  thought  of  this  by  myself, 
but  congratulatory  bouquets  seemed  to  be 
expected  on  any  and  every  anniversary, 
so  I  acted  in  accordance  with  the  suggestion 
offered.  Prince  August  Wilhelm  came  in 
person  to  thank  me  on  behalf  of  his  brothers, 
and  by  request  of  his  governor  to  invite 
me  upstairs  at  nine  o'clock.  At  the 


THE  CRADLE  OF  MILITARISM    69 

appointed  time  I  went  into  the  schoolroom, 
where  the  governor  and  the  three  Princes 
arrived  simultaneously.  The  governor  first 
showed  us  Sedan  on  the  map  ;  none  of  us 
being  given  any  chance  to  ever  forget  its 
exact  geographical  position  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Meuse,  nor  the  actual  dates. 
I  had  been  vaguely  aware  of  the  latter,  but 
I  now  learnt  how,  on  September  I,  1870, 
the  Prussians  had  defeated  a  large  French 
force,  and  how  on  the  following  day  the 
Emperor  Napoleon  III  surrendered  with 
the  whole  of  his  army  of  86,000  men.  The 
governor  read  the  whole  account  aloud — 
from  a  book  by  Bismarck,  I  think  he 
said — and  he  certainly  declaimed  it  in  a 
most  stirring  manner,  calculated  to  fill 
his  hearers  with  martial  ardour.  The 
story  dwelt  much  on  the  old  Emperor 
William  I  (or  King  William  as  he  then  was), 
enlarging  on  his  humility  after  the  victory. 
It  related  how,  when  Napoleon  asked 
whether  he  should  come  himself  to  the 
little  Schloss  of  Bellevue  to  deliver  his 
arms,  the  "  thoughtful,  gentle  "  old  monarch 


70  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

William,  knowing  that  Napoleon  would 
have  to  march  through  the  whole  Prussian 
Army  to  get  to  him,  said  he  himself  would 
go  to  Napoleon  ;  kindly  using  the  latter's 
ill-health  as  his  reason  for  sparing  him 
this  humiliation. 

Then  came  a  description  of  the  very 
arduous  work  done  by  William  I  at  the 
age  of  seventy-three.  The  quotation  may 
not  be  accurate,  but  my  diary  extract  runs 
thus : 

"He  is  on  the  battle-field  all  day  long, 
and  hard  at  work.  He  stands  and  renders 
the  entire  glory  of  the  victory  to  God. 
He  is  in  no  way  elated,  and  with  his  far- 
seeing  insight  he  declares  that  trouble 
with  France  is  not  at  an  end." 

The  Princes  were  all  very  much  moved, 
and  several  times  I  saw  Prince  Oscar  turn 
his  head  towards  the  screen  to  hide  his 
emotion. 

I  was  given  little  chance  throughout 
the  day  to  forget  the  great  anniversary, 
the  various  ladies  being  anxious  to  supply 


THE  CRADLE  OF  MILITARISM    71 

me  with  complete  details,  of  which  I,  being 
English,  might  be  ignorant  and  glad  to 
avail  myself  from  an  authentic  source. 
As  it  was,  I  did  happen  to  be  rather  glad 
that  I  had  absorbed  so  much  of  the 
governor's  reading  to  the  Princes  early  in 
the  morning,  as  I  was  able  to  let  them  see 
that  my  ignorance  was  not  so  great  as  they 
thought. 

That  evening  there  was  a  very  fine  sun- 
set, and  Prince  Adalbert  and  I  were  in  the 
garden,  watching  it.  There  was  silence 
for  a  moment,  then  he  said,  "When  I  see 
the  lovely  red  sky  to-night,  I  think  it  is 
the  reflection  of  the  blood  of  our  brave  men 
who  died  at  Sedan." 

I  thought  it  rather  a  beautiful  remark, 
and  it  struck  me  that  the  governor's 
emotional  rendering  of  the  battle-story 
had  evidently  made  a  deep  impression  on 
the  boy's  mind. 

After  a  service  on  the  anniversary  of  the 
old  Emperor's  death  (William  the  First),  I 
went  down  to  visit  one  of  the  ladies : 
she  told  me  what  a  wonderful  expression 


72  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

of  humble  thankfulness  he  had  on  his 
face  when  the  tidings  came  of  the  birth 
of  the  present  Crown  Prince.  He  said, 
"  Oh,  what  grace  God  has  shown  me  !  " 
As  he  lay  dying,  he  appeared  to  see  visions 
and  spoke  much.  He  seemed  to  be  having 
a  conflict  of  some  kind,  but  to  be  quite  at 
peace  through  it  all.  He  said,  "  If  war 
must  come,  I  will  be  willing  to  fight,  but  I 
am  not  willing  ever  to  make  the  first  move." 
He  would  talk  on  and  on,  but  when  spoken 
to  he  would  become  quite  clear  and  co- 
herent. For  instance,  when  his  daughter, 
the  Grand  Duchess  of  Baden,  said,  "  Papa, 
won't  you  drink  some  champagne  ?  '"  he 
answered  quite  clearly,  saying  he  would 
take  some.  To  see  the  poor  old  paralysed 
Empress  sitting,  holding  his  hand  all  the 
time,  was  most  pathetic.  She  also  told  me 
what  a  splendid  character  the  Emperor 
Frederick  was  (the  old  Emperor's  son). 

Tales  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War  were 
constantly  being  told  to  the  Princes,  and 
these  they  would  retail  to  me  with  great 
gusto.  A  favourite  one  was  that  of  a 


THE  CRADLE  OF  MILITARISM    73 

particular  Prussian  who,  surrounded  by 
five  Frenchmen,  manged  to  kill  them  all. 
I  grew  to  hate  this  story,  as  each  Prince 
would  tell  it  me  in  turn,  and  I  had  to 
applaud  the  Prussian's  bravery  each  time, 
as  if  the  glory  of  it  had  only  just  struck  me. 

From  their  earliest  years  the  Princes — 
and  even  the  little  Princess — were  accorded 
the  military  honour  of  the  turning  out  of 
the  guard  whenever  they  came  in  or  went 
out  through  the  Palace  gates.  No  matter 
what  they  might  be  doing  in  the  guard- 
house at  the  time,  as  one  approached  with 
any  of  the  Princes  one  would  hear  the 
soldiers  make  a  sudden  rush  for  their  rifles, 
and  as  we  came  up  there  they  would  be, 
stiffly  ranged  in  line,  presenting  arms.  This 
salute  the  Princes  had  to  acknowledge, 
and  it  happened  several  times  a  day.  I 
felt  quite  sorry  both  for  them  and  for  the 
guard  too. 

At  ten  years,  each  Prussian  Prince  is 
made  a  lieutenant  of  the  regiment  of  the 
ist  Guards,  the  uniform  of  which  he  wears 
on  state  occasions,  such  as  Christmas  Eve, 


74  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

birthdays,  and  so  forth.  I  remember  the 
three  elder  ones  garbed  thus  gorgeously, 
and  wearing  all  their  orders,  sitting  behind 
the  Kaiser  and  the  Kaiserin  on  the  night 
of  a  gala  performance  at  the  Opera.  There 
was  a  Russian  Royalty  present,  and  the 
piece  was  Russian  in  compliment  to  him. 
This  Prince  was  visiting  the  Kaiser,  and  I 
recollect  there  were  special  precautions 
taken  to  protect  him,  no  less  than  four 
guards  being  stationed  outside  his  bedroom 
door. 

There  was  a  parade  in  honour  of  this 
visitor,  and  my  young  charges  were  very 
excited  because  new  colours  were  to  be 
given  to  some  particular  regiment,  I  forget 
which.  Each  of  the  Princes  and  also  the 
Princess  had  to  drive  a  nail  into  the  staff 
of  the  flag,  which  they  did  with  great 
enthusiasm.  On  the  following  day  the 
Crown  Prince  and  Prince  Fritz  were  to 
be  given  twenty-one  men  to  command — 
their  first  real  introduction  to  military  life 
as  officers.  I  remember  I  was  playing 
chess  with  Prince  Adalbert  when  Prince 


THE  CRADLE  OF  MILITARISM    75 

Fritz  burst  in — full  of  the  coming  honour — 
and  rehearsed  his  words  of  command, 
which  sent  his  brother  and  myself  into  fits 
of  laughter  ;  though  we  duly  applauded 
his  efforts,  and  congratulated  him  on  his 
new-found  importance. 

Potsdam,  their  real  home,  being  of 
course  a  garrison  town,  there  was  no  lack 
of  soldiers  about.  The  German  officer  even 
in  peace-time  never  wears  anything  but  uni- 
form, and  his  thick-set,  square-shouldered 
figure  may  be  seen  arrogantly  striding 
along  the  streets.  If  the  pavement 
is  too  narrow  to  accommodate  all  its 
pedestrians,  it  is  he  who  has  the  right  to 
remain  lord  of  the  pathway,  and  mere 
civilians  or  women  meekly  make  their  way 
in  the  gutter. 

He  is  ready  to  flirt  with  every  pretty 
girl  he  sees,  and  because  she  is  taught  to 
reverence  the  Army,  she  oftens  gets  herself 
into  difficulties  in  this  way. 

Even  in  my  time  this  was  so,  and  the 
Princes'  military  governors  were  no  ex- 
ception to  the  general  rule.  Nevertheless, 


;6  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

they  had  the  grace  to  remember  their 
high  position  and  responsibilities,  and  never 
overstepped  the  standards  expected  of 
an  officer  and  a  gentleman — at  least,  so 
far  as  I  knew. 

I  received  orders  as  to  my  moral  influence 
with  the  Princes.  I  was  told  to  teach 
them  self-control  and  to  be  very  strict 
with  them,  reporting  them  immediately 
to  their  governors  if,  for  any  reason,  they 
gave  way  to  tears,  or  made  any  other 
unmanly  exhibition  of  themselves.  I  was 
to  let  them  see  that  I  trusted  them,  that 
I  gave  them  credit  for  a  sense  of  honour, 
and  that  I  never  suspected  them ;  but  all 
the  same  I  was  not  to  tempt  them.  When 
giving  out  sweets,  I  was  only  to  give  them 
three  each,  however  much  they  clamoured 
for  more.  I  was  never  to  allow  any 
wrong  action  to  go  unnoticed  or  un- 
punished ;  and  I  was  to  report  them  to  the 
governors  for  this  purpose. 

"  A  wrong  deed  nursed  in  a  child's  heart 
is  the  worst  poison  to  his  mind,"  was  the 
aphorism  uttered  by  the  head  governor 


THE  CRADLE  OF  MILITARISM    77 

as  he  outlined  to  me  the  moral  training  of 
my  young  charges. 

Long  -  division  sums  seemed  a  more 
fruitful  cause  of  tears  than  any  other  part 
of  their  rather  arduous  studies.  Often 
Prince  Oscar  would  come  to  me  and  tell 
me  he  was  being  kept  in  by  his  tutor  to 
wrestle  with  such  sums,  and  there  he 
would  be  kept  until  he  could  master  these 
intricacies  of  arithmetic. 

Recalling  the  weary  hours  of  my  child- 
hood spent  over  long  -  division  sums,  I 
could  not  but  sympathize  ;  although,  as 
instructed,  I  endeavoured  to  point  out 
the  extreme  unmanliness  and  uselessness 
of  crying  over  them.  Sometimes  the 
Kaiserin  herself  would  speak  to  her  boys 
about  their  trying  to  master  their  arith- 
metic, and  more  tears  would  be  the  result. 
But  I  must  say  when  I  saw  these  and 
other  problems  that  their  brains  were 
expected  to  grapple  with,  I  thought  them 
far  too  difficult. 

I  remember  once  when  Princess  Aribert 
(a  married  daughter  of  Prince  Christian) 


78  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

was  staying  at  the  Palace,  she  found  the 
boys  in  tears,  and  told  them  how  as  a  child 
her  father  used  to  offer  her  a  penny  for 
every  day  she  went  without  crying,  and 
how  she  used  to  save  up  her  tears  and 
have  them  all  out  at  once,  sitting  on  his 
knee  and  bedewing  his  shoulder  with  them. 
Meanwhile,  in  his  practical  way,  he  had 
protected  his  clothes  by  placing  a  hand- 
kerchief on  his  shoulder  to  take  off  the 
edge  of  her  weeping ! 

"  I  did  not  manage  to  earn  much  money 
this  way,"  she  said  ruefully. 

In  those  days  Zeppelins  and  aeroplanes 
were  hardly  heard  of,  and  certainly  never 
seen.  I  am  sure  the  Princes  would  have 
gone  wild  with  delight  if  they  had  had  the 
opportunity  in  their  boyhood  of  witnessing 
thus  the  conquest  of  the  air.  Nevertheless, 
their  attendance  at  military  reviews  and 
parades  was  of  frequent  occurrence,  and 
these  gave  them  a  certain  solemn  sense  of 
pride  and  pleasure. 

Brought  up  thus  to  the  blare  of  trumpets, 
can  it  be  wondered  at  that  they  early 


THE  CRADLE  OF  MILITARISM    79 

imbibed  the  teaching  drummed  into  them 
by  almost  every  detail  of  their  military 
training  ?  "  Might  is  right  "  was  the  spirit 
of  this  teaching,  and  the  comforting  legend 
"  Gott  mit  uns  "  (God  with  us),  inscribed 
on  their  equipment,  salved  their  con- 
sciences from  any  qualms  as  to  the  suffering 
of  the  unfortunate  victims  of  the  mailed 
fist. 

I  remember  being  so  much  impressed 
by  their  wonderful  obedience  that  I  wrote 
home  about  it  to  my  sister  and  counselled 
her  to  bring  up  her  boys  in  the  same  manner. 

The  Princes  were  taught  to  obey  on  the 
instant,  and  I  once  rather  got  into  trouble 
by  reiterating  my  command  before  there 
had  been  time  to  carry  it  out. 

It  was  only  a  small  matter,  but  it  led  to 
quite  a  dissertation  on  the  subject  gener- 
ally. It  happened  like  this  : 

One  day  they  were  all  in  wild  spirits, 
noisy  as  boys  will  be,  and  I  said  to  Prince 
Fritz  : 

"  Don't  make  a  noise  going  downstairs." 

He  was  a  big,  heavy  boy,  and  often  used 


8o  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

to  clatter  at  full  speed  down  the  stairs, 
taking  too  long  a  jump  when  he  neared 
the  bottom,  and  landing  with  a  huge  crash 
which  I  thought  might  disturb  his  parents. 
If  not  this,  he  would  slide  noisily  down  the 
banisters,  as  boys  will. 

Not  expecting  him  to  restrain  his  ex- 
uberant spirits  at  the  first  time  of  asking, 
I  leaned  over  the  stairs  and  called  down  : 

"  I  mean  what  I  say,  Prince  Fritz." 

It  appears  he  was  sorely  hurt,  poor  boy, 
as  he  prided  himself  on  never  being  told 
such  a  thing  twice.  He  said  to  his  mother  : 

"  Miss  Howard,  I  believe,  doubts  my 
honour.  She  is  not  like  the  other  teachers." 

Then  the  Kaiserin  sent  for  me,  and  we  had 
a  little  talk.  She  was  very  kind,  and 
when  I  remarked  that  I  did  not  expect  a 
boy  to  obey  on  the  instant  like  that, 
struck  though  I  was  by  their  prompt 
obedience  generally,  she  replied  that  her 
boys  were  all  brought  up  under  military 
discipline. 

"  They  are  drilled  from  babyhood,"  she 
said,  "  and  they  know  that  in  the  Army 


THE  CRADLE  OF  MILITARISM    81 

to  disobey  is  death  or  for  ever  to  be  dis- 
missed from  the  Service.  Likewise,  any 
disobedience  on  their  part  has  been  made  so 
terribly  serious  to  them,  in  order  to  impress 
them  and  prevent  its  recurrence." 

This  training  struck  me  as  extremely 
convenient  for  those  in  authority,  and 
excellent  for  boys  generally,  provided  that 
their  superior  officers  were  just,  and  did 
not  take  advantage  of  their  despotic  powers 
in  this  respect. 

But  for  grown  men,  the  defects  of  ex- 
cessive militarism  seemed  to  me  very 
apparent.  Being  a  woman,  I  have  of 
course  no  personal  experience  to  speak 
from,  and  were  I  a  man  and  a  soldier  I 
should  perhaps  think  very  differently. 

It  did  not  matter  for  the  Princes  when 
they  grew  older,  as  they  were  the  sons  of 
the  Emperor  and  born  to  command,  but 
it  did  seem  to  me  then,  and  later  years 
have  only  confirmed  my  view,  that  to  the 
ordinary  young  officer  in  the  German 
Army  this  unbroken  and  unintelligently 
applied  letter  of  discipline,  this  counting 


82  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

it  a  crime  even  among  comrades  to  criticize 
a  superior  officer,  this  blind  obedience  to 
the  orders  perhaps  of  fools,  which  the 
system  of  automatic  promotion  has  placed 
over  his  head,  tends  to  warp  initiative  and 
brains.  Only  when  he  becomes  in  his 
turn  a  colonel  or  a  general  may  he  use  his 
initiative,  which  as  often  as  not  has  gone 
from  him  with  the  passing  of  his  youth. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  LIGHTER  SIDE 

LIKE   other  boys,   the  Princes  were 
full  of  fun,  and  their  high  spirits, 
much  in  evidence,  were  often  mani- 
fested in  military  form,  in  accordance  with 
the  general  trend  of  the  German  mind. 

The  Crown  Prince,  then  nearly  fourteen 
years  of  age,  was  at  home  when  I  took  up 
my  appointment.  I  remember  that  he 
was  in  the  habit  of  marching  his  younger 
brothers  in  to  meals,  forming  them  up  in 
line  and  ordering  them  to  their  seats  in 
true  soldierly  manner.  Very  shortly  after 
my  formal  presentation  to  the  Princes, 
and  before  I  definitely  took  charge,  the 
Crown  Prince  invited  me  to  "  fall  in " 
also.  This  I  did,  somewhat  to  the  detri- 
ment of  my  dignity,  as  he  immediately 

initiated    a   sort   of    "  Follow-my-leader " 

83 


84  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

drill,  not  the  least  of  the  orders  given 
being  to  vault  a  chair — at  which  command 
I  promptly  fell  out.  Needless  to  say, 
there  were  roars  of  laughter  from  all  the 
boys,  in  which  I  joined,  and  was  soon  at 
my  ease  with  them. 

Their  fondness  for  practical  jokes  kept 
me  ever  on  the  alert.  It  was  their  great 
delight  to  upset  my  equanimity  on  any 
and  every  possible  occasion — the  more 
formal  the  better.  In  spite  of  my  being 
constantly  on  my  guard,  I  fear  they  often 
succeeded.  Once  the  Crown  Prince  caught 
some  live  frogs  and  imprisoned  them  inside 
my  serviette  at  supper,  and  well  do  I 
remember  the  shouts  of  delight  which 
hailed  my  involuntary  exclamation  of 
horror  as  my  fingers  came  in  contact  with 
the  cold  and  clammy  reptiles.  All  the 
Princes  enjoyed  themselves  hugely  catching 
them  again,  but  I  cannot  say  I  had  much 
appetite  for  my  food  that  night,  the 
whole  table  having  served  as  the  course 
of  an  obstacle-race  for  frogs. 

Some  of  their  practical  jokes  were  not 


THE  LIGHTER  SIDE  85 

of  the  kindest  order,  but  I  will  give  only 
one  instance  in  which  I  myself  suffered 
through  the  more  thoughtless  form  of 
boyish  prank. 

One  day  in  the  grounds  of  the  Wilhelms- 
hohe  Palace,  near  Cassel,  Prince  Adalbert 
was  out  cycling,  and  I  was  with  him.  We 
were  at  the  top  of  a  steep  hill,  when  he 
suddenly  gave  a  yell  and  tore  down  it  at 
full  speed,  seeming  to  lose  control  of  his 
machine  as  he  did  so.  Anticipating  an 
accident,  my  heart  in  my  mouth,  I  tore 
down  after  him.  To  my  horror,  I  saw  the 
machine  overturn  and  the  Prince  flung 
into  the  ditch.  When  I  arrived  on  the 
scene,  panting  and  breathless,  he  was 
lying  mute  and  still,  to  all  appearances 
unconscious.  Had  I  been  the  modern  girl 
of  to-day,  I  should  have  been  trained  in 
first  aid  and  would  have  known  at  once 
what  to  do.  As  it  was,  I  did  the  wrong 
thing.  Not  a  soul  was  near,  or  likely  to 
pass  within  call.  I  did  not  like  to  leave 
him  lying  there  while  I  went  to  summon 
help,  and  the  only  thing  that  occurred  to 


86  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

me  was  to  myself  carry  him  back  to  the 
Palace.  The  way  back  lay  up  the  terribly 
steep  hill  we  had  just  come  down.  I 
gathered  him  up  in  my  arms,  staggering 
under  his  weight,  and  started  slowly  up 
the  hill.  He  was  then  about  fourteen, 
and  no  light  weight.  I  am  not  a  big 
woman,  and  lack  physical  strength,  nor 
was  my  health  very  good  at  the  time. 
Nevertheless,  I  staggered  on,  bearing  my 
princely  burden,  only  intense  anxiety 
giving  me  strength  to  continue.  My  arms 
were  breaking,  and  at  last  I  felt  I  must 
drop  him,  or  he  would  fall  from  my  weaken- 
ing hold.  Imagine  my  state  of  mind, 
then,  when  he  suddenly  flung  himself 
away  from  me,  and  danced  in  front  of  me, 
shouting  with  glee  at  my  distress  !  He 
had  purposely  fallen  off  his  bicycle  and 
shammed  insensibility  in  order  to  frighten 
me  !  I  was  too  weak  to  admonish  him, 
and  my  intense  relief  at  his  safety  pre- 
vented the  lecture  he  deserved.  We  re- 
turned to  the  Palace,  after  I  had  rested, 
but  I  was  in  such  a  state  that  I  felt  I  had 


THE   LIGHTER  SIDE  87 

not  the  strength  to  report  what  had 
happened,  besides  which  I  had  no  wish  to 
show  up  my  foolishness  in  being  so  easily 
taken  in.  For  some  days  afterwards  I 
felt  the  physical  effects  of  carrying  such 
a  weight  uphill,  and  I  shall  never  forget 
the  nervous  shock  it  gave  me. 

It  took  me  quite  a  long  time  to  get  my 
bearing  and  to  fit  into  my  exact  niche  in 
the  life  of  the  German  Court.  The  duties 
assigned  to  me  on  arrival  were,  I  found, 
sufficiently  elastic  to  admit  of  the  inclusion 
of  new  ones  and  the  elimination  of  old 
ones  to  suit  the  sudden  whims  of  those 
in  authority,  but  the  new  duties  added 
increased  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  old 
duties  superseded.  At  first,  I  often  did 
things  not  within  my  province,  though  I 
only  did  them  on  the  suggestion  of  someone 
or  other  whom  I  thought  to  be  in  authority. 

For  instance,  I  had  been  there  quite  a 
short  time  when  I  was  told  that  Prince 
Oscar  came  in  to  meals  with  dirty  hands, 
and  I  was  instructed  to  take  the  matter  up 
with  the  lackey  whose  duty  it  was  to  wash 


88  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

the  Princes'  hands  before  meals.  These 
lackeys  wear  the  most  wonderful  silver- 
braided  uniform,  not  really  very  military- 
looking,  but  to  my  ignorant  eyes  there  was 
little  to  distinguish  them  one  from  the 
other.  At  any  rate,  there  was  one  of  these 
ornate  functionaries  in  the  room  where 
the  Princes'  ablutions  took  place,  and  I 
accordingly  approached  him  and  informed 
him  that  I  would  show  him  how  I  wished 
the  young  Princes'  hands  washed.  This 
seemed  to  cause  much  suppressed  merri- 
ment on  the  Princes'  part,  half-stifled 
chuckles  issuing  from  them  as  I  gave  my 
very  practical  demonstration  to  the  lackey 
in  question,  and  precise  instructions,  not 
to  say  orders,  for  him  to  do  it  properly 
in  future.  I  merely  thought  they  were 
laughing  at  my  bad  German,  and  paid  no 
heed,  afterwards  going  upstairs  to  dress 
for  luncheon.  There  were  several  dis- 
tinguished guests  that  day,  and  I  was 
suddenly  told  to  come  and  be  presented 
to  a  particularly  important  person,  the 
Kaiserin's  brother,  Duke  Ernest  of  Schles- 


THE  LIGHTER  SIDE  89 

wig-Holstein.  Imagine  my  consternation 
when  this  latter  informed  me  that  he 
needed  no  introduction,  as  I  had  kindly 
given  him  a  very  useful  lesson  before 
luncheon  on  the  subject  of  hand-washing. 

At  the  time  I  thought  it  a  terrible 
contretemps,  and  blamed  my  shortsighted- 
ness as  well  as  my  ignorance  of  uniforms  ; 
but  my  sense  of  humour  soon  asserted 
itself,  and  the  recollection  of  this  incident 
still  affords  me  intense  amusement. 

One  evening  during  my  early  days  the 
Princes  were  sent  for  to  go  downstairs  to 
their  parents,  which  enabled  me  to  go  to 
my  room  to  read  and  rest.  Getting  into 
a  comfortable  old  frock  as  a  preliminary,  I 
prepared  to  enjoy  my  leisure  hour.  Sud- 
denly one  of  the  Princes  appeared  and 
informed  me  I  was  to  go  down  immediately, 
as  the  Kaiser  wished  me  to  be  presented 
to  their  great-aunt.  There  was  no  time 
to  change,  so,  in  despair,  1  seized  some 
smart  new  gloves,  that  indispensable  ad- 
junct, and  went  down  to  a  part  of  the 
Palace  I  had  not  previously  been  in.  The 


90  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

room  was  empty  save  for  a  fat  old  lady, 
sitting  in  a  chair  in  the  centre.  The  first 
thing  that  struck  me  was  the  quantity 
of  antimacassars  which  seemed  to  envelop 
her,  then  I  noticed  that  her  face  was  re- 
markably red.  One  of  the  Princes  whis- 
pered to  me,  "  Make  your  bow,"  which  I 
immediately  did.  I  was  then  told  to  go 
near  and  kiss  her  hand.  As  I  approached 
to  do  this,  the  old  lady  appeared  more  and 
more  embarrassed.  Finally,  when  I  bowed 
right  in  front  of  her,  expecting  her  to 
extend  a  hand  for  me  to  kiss,  she  suddenly 
stood  up  and  asked  the  Princes  to  excuse 
her  as  she  could  do  no  more — at  the  same 
time  she  profusely  begged  my  pardon. 
The  truth  was  out  at  last.  This  was  their 
idea  of  amusement.  Their  Majesties  were 
down  at  dinner,  and  the  pseudo  great-aunt 
was  an  old  nurse,  who  was  permitted  to 
annually  pay  her  respects  to  the  Kaiser. 

Another  time  I  was  nearly  made  sick 
by  the  most  fearful  concoction  of  vinegar, 
salt,  and  sugar  which  Prince  Fritz  slipped 
into  my  soda  water.  Quite  unsuspectingly 


THE  LIGHTER  SIDE  91 

I  took  a  long  drink,  to  my  utter  discom- 
fiture, and  their  great  delight. 

When  the  Princes'  school-work  was  well 
done  they  were  allowed  to  invite  to  the 
Palace  boy-friends  whose  ages  were  about 
the  same.  Such  days  were  always  dreaded 
by  me,  for  the  visitors  were  unable  to 
speak  or  understand  English,  and  being 
very  boisterous  the  assemblage  became 
a  very  excited  one.  So  much  so  that  I 
found  it  almost  impossible  to  manage  them. 
Eventually,  however,  the  governor  took 
upon  himself  this  responsibility. 

I  noticed  on  these  occasions  that  the 
food  was  particularly  German,  the  notorious 
sausage  playing  an  important  part.  Now, 
I  could  never  bring  myself  to  like  this 
particular  delicacy  as  the  Germans  did, 
and  this  fact  was  well  known  to  the  Crown 
Prince.  One  day  he  presented  me  with  a 
very  huge  sausage,  saying  that  even  if  I 
did  not  eat  it  myself  he  felt  sure  that  it 
would  be  appreciated  by  my  people,  and 
suggested  I  should  send  it  to  my  mother. 
And  this  I  did ! 


92  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

The  Crown  Prince  would  ask  me  repeat- 
edly what  my  people  had  said.  At  last 
a  letter  arrived,  but  its  contents  proved  a 
great  disappointment.  Whether  it  was  that 
the  packing  was  not  properly  carried  out, 
or  that  the  sausage  had  been  too  long  on 
the  journey,  the  fact  remained  that  on  the 
parcel  reaching  my  home  the  postman 
was  obliged  to  leave  it  at  the  bottom  of 
the  garden ! 

When  occasion  arose,  the  Princes  were 
just  as  ready  to  fool  their  governors.  They 
often  succeeded  in  doing  so,  at  which  I 
was  secretly  rather  amused,  not  to  say 
pleased  ;  for  these  latter  might  be  expected, 
by  their  more  intimate  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience of  boyhood  and  their  command 
of  the  mother  tongue,  to  avoid  the  pitfalls 
into  which  I,  a  woman  and  unable  to  speak 
German,  fell  headlong. 

On  a  certain  first  of  April,  Prince  Au-Wi 
was  due  to  attend  an  examination.  He 
dressed  as  usual,  then  put  his  night-shirt 
over  his  clothes,  procured  some  powder  from 
somewhere,  and  made  his  face  as  naturally 


THE  LIGHTER  SIDE  93 

pale  as  he  could,  at  the  same  time  manu- 
facturing dark  rings  round  his  eyes.  He 
then  jumped  into  bed,  put  on  a  woebegone 
expression,  and  sent  to  tell  his  governor 
that  he  felt  so  ill  he  feared  he  could  not 
attend  the  examination.  The  governor, 
much  alarmed,  anything  in  the  nature  of 
illness  being  a  terrible  thing  in  the  Palace, 
hurried  to  his  bedside ;  whereupon  the 
Prince,  after  enjoying  his  consternation 
for  just  as  long  as  he  thought  it  would 
last,  suddenly  bounded  out  of  bed,  crying, 
"  April  fool  !  April  fool  !  "  I  am  glad  to 
say  that  the  auspicious  date  saved  him 
from  punishment  for  his  practical  joke  on 
this  occasion. 

But  Au-Wi  and  his  brothers  did  not 
always  get  such  satisfaction  out  of  their 
love  of  fun.  An  artist  was  once  copying 
a  very  old  portrait  of  one  of  their  ancestors. 
Finding  the  picture-gallery  untenanted,  two 
of  the  boys  slipped  in  and  amused  them- 
selves by  pretending  to  paint  on  their  own 
account.  They  had  no  real  intention  of 
spoiling  the  picture,  thinking  the  palette 


94  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

and  brushes  were  dry.  Each  seized  one 
and  swept  it  across  the  canvas  on  the  easel, 
leaving  a  fearful  daub  of  paint.  Terrified 
at  what  they  had  done,  they  rushed  to 
confess  to  the  governors ;  and  though 
already  dressed  for  the  Opera  that  night, 
they  were  forbidden  to  go,  and  consequently 
spent  the  evening  in  disgrace. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  the  Princes' 
lives  were  all  hardship.  Recreation  entered 
in  just  as  strenuously  as  study.  Tennis 
was  extremely  popular,  and  a  good  deal  of 
time  was  spent  on  it.  In  this  game  the 
Kaiser  would  often  join  them,  and  at  such 
times  he  was  seen  at  his  best  with  his  sons, 
I  thought. 

They  each  had  bicycles,  and  like  all 
boys  were  not  content  to  ride  them  in  the 
ordinary  way  like  everyone  else,  but  must 
needs  practise  all  sorts  of  tricks,  till  some- 
times, when  they  showed  these  off  success- 
fully, it  was  quite  like  a  circus  performance 
of  trick-riding.  Princes  Adalbert  and  Oscar 
were  especially  good  in  this  direction. 
They  led  quite  an  open-air  life,  and  as  they 


THE  LIGHTER  SIDE  95 

grew  older  opportunities  for  sport  in- 
creased. They  were  always  much  with 
animals,,  and  often  used  to  get  presents  of 
live  stock.  One  night,  before  supper,  a 
hamper  was  suddenly  brought  to  them, 
and  great  were  the  surmises  as  to  what  it 
might  contain.  Upon  opening  it,  much  to 
our  surprise,  a  very  lively  young  cockerel 
suddenly  jumped  out.  There  had  been  no 
sound  or  suspicion  of  his  presence  while 
the  hamper  was  being  opened.  He  was 
vociferously  welcomed  by  the  boys — 
though  not  by  me — and  was  the  cause  of 
much  laughter ;  but  he  finally  became  so 
unmanageable  and  pecked  so  viciously 
that  he  had  to  be  taken  away.  What 
became  of  him  I  don't  know,  I  was  only 
too  thankful  to  see  the  last  of  him. 

The  Kaiser,  too,  used  to  receive  many 
gifts  of  animals  of  various  kinds,  but  especi- 
ally of  horses  and  dogs.  The  Royal  stables 
at  the  Neues  Palais  in  Potsdam  were 
wonderful,  and  I  used  to  enjoy  going  over 
them  no  less  than  did  my  young  pupils.  I 
remember  a  beautiful  black  charger  pre- 


96  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

sented  by  some  crowned  head,  but  I  cannot 
recall  the  name  of  the  illustrious  donor. 

As  for  the  kennels,  they  were  beauti- 
fully kept,  and  there  were  some  fine  dogs. 
Two  little  dachshunds  I  specially  admired. 
They  belonged  to  the  Kaiser,  so  I  saw  less 
of  them  than  the  Princes'  own  particular 
pets.  There  were  two  very  fine  Russian 
boarhounds  given  to  the  Kaiser  by  the 
Tsar,  and  these  were  extremely  valuable. 
I  had  good  cause  to  remember  them,  as 
their  particular  kennels  were  close  under 
my  bedroom  window  and  their  howling  at 
the  moon  invariably  kept  me  awake. 

The  Princes  used  to  add  to  their  meagre 
pocket-money  by  gathering  and  storing 
chestnuts,  which  they  sold  to  their  august 
father  as  food  for  his  deer  at  the  price 
of  twenty  marks  per  sack.  During  the 
autumn  months  nearly  everyone  in  the 
Court  used  to  help  to  add  to  their  collection, 
throwing  them  as  they  found  them  into  a 
sort  of  little  red  parcel-post  cart  drawn 
by  Prince  Oscar.  One  day,  after  luncheon, 
the  Kaiser  suddenly  decided  to  pay  the 


PRINCE   OSCAR   AT   THE   AGE   OF    12 


THE  LIGHTER  SIDE  97 

boys  their  chestnut  money,  and  there  was 
a  breathless  scramble — just  as  they  were — 
to  the  play-house  in  the  garden  where  the 
chestnuts  were  stored,  the  five  boys  all 
breathless  and  untidy  hauling  huge  sacks 
of  chestnuts  into  the  ordered  Palace  dining- 
room  and  depositing  their  burden  at  the 
Kaiser's  feet. 

Away  from  Berlin,  the  daily  luncheons 
with  the  Imperial  couple  were  sometimes 
quite  a  homely  affair.  Often,  after  the 
meal,  if  circumstances  allowed,  they  would 
themselves  join  in  a  game  of  musical  chairs 
for  the  benefit  of  the  little  Princess.  I  was 
always  called  upon  to  play  on  these  occa- 
sions, and  as  my  music  was  limited  to  one 
tune  I  was  not  sorry  when  the  game  ceased. 
I  used  to  play  it  over  and  over  again,  until 
they  must  have  got  as  tired  of  it  as  I  was, 
but  never  until  they  tired  of  the  game  it- 
self did  they  stop.  I  do  not  even  remember 
the  name  of  my  one  tune ;  it  was  a  march 
of  some  sort,  and  I  picked  it  out  myself  as 
a  young  girl.  The  boys  used  to  ask  for  it 
when  the  Crown  Prince  marched  them 
7 


98  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

in  to  supper  ;  and  in  later  years,  while  in 
Japan,  where  I  spent  seven  years  teach- 
ing the  young  Princes  how  to  speak  my 
native  tongue,  I  often  played  it  for  them. 
Never  was  a  tune  so  hard  worked  or  so 
useful ! 

At  the  top  of  the  Neues  Palais  there  was 
a  very  large  room  where  the  Princes  played 
games  and  also  learnt  to  dance.  I  re- 
member once  seeing  the  Kaiser  play  foot- 
ball with  them  there.  One  winter  I  taught 
them  hockey,  which  they  mch  enjoyed, 
though  we  were  rather  at  a  loss  for  proper 
implements  of  this  sport.  Nevertheless, 
we  made  shift  with  old  stilts  instead  of 
hockey  sticks,  and  an  old  wooden  ball,  the 
"  jack  "  of  a  bowling  set,  was  not  difficult 
to  get  hold  of.  The  boys  were  rather 
rough,  but  enjoyed  themselves  greatly  in 
this  manner. 

Sometimes,  when  the  Kaiser  was  away 
on  one  of  his  many  journeys,  we  ladies  and 
the  Princes  had  supper  alone  with  the 
Kaiserin ;  and  afterwards  we  used  to  play 
games.  I  used  to  be  rather  apprehensive  as 


THE  LIGHTER  SIDE  99 

to  whether  the  boys'  choice  of  amusement 
would  be  adopted,  having  a  lively  re- 
collection of  one  of  my  best  black  dresses 
being  spoilt  by  a  game  in  which  a  barrel  of 
flour  played  a  prominent  part. 

The  first  idea  was  to  find  a  bean,  buried 
deep  in  the  flour.  We  were  each  allowed  a 
certain  number  of  dips,  and  the  Kaiserin 
was  the  first  to  find  it.  She  promptly 
took  a  beautiful  pearl  ring  off  her  linger, 
threw  it  into  the  barrel,  sifted  flour  over  it, 
and  challenged  us  to  find  the  valuable 
prize.  I  happened  to  be  the  fortunate  one, 
but  finding  was  not  keeping  in  my  case,  as 
she  explained  that  it  was  a  ring  she  valued 
greatly,  being  one  of  the  first  ever  given 
her  by  the  Kaiser.  The  Princes,  not  having 
found  anything  themselves,  began  to  weary 
of  the  game,  and  diverted  themselves  by 
smearing  flour  all  over  their  faces  and  then 
rubbing  their  cheeks  against  ours.  Then 
they  took  it  into  their  heads  to  powder  my 
hair,  which  they  proceeded  to  do,  being 
very  generous  with  it,  and  besprinkling  my 
whole  person,  till  I  cannot  imagine  what  I 


ioo          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

must  have  looked  like.  Everyone  was 
convulsed  with  laughter. 

I  only  know  my  black  dress  was  com- 
pletely ruined,  and  another  of  the  ladies 
afterwards  told  me  hers  was  too.  But  that 
was  nothing  out  of  the  way ;  many  and 
many  were  the  pairs  of  white  kid  gloves 
(de  rigueur  in  the  Court)  suddenly  spoilt 
by  wet  flowers  affectionately  thrust  into 
my  hands  by  one  or  other  of  my  boy 
charges. 

Another  time  they  played  with  flour, 
dropping  small  objects  into  a  basin  of 
water,  then  sprinkling  the  flour  thickly 
over  the  whole  ;  after  which  one  had  to 
fish  for  the  objects  as  best  one  could.  One 
got  one's  hands  messy,  but  I  never  spoilt 
any  clothes  in  this  manner,  I  am  glad  to 
say. 

Prince  Au-Wi  made  a  little  silver  ring 
out  of  one  of  the  strings  of  his  zither,  and 
the  idea  was  that  whoever  was  successful 
in  fishing  it  out  was  to  be  the  first  one 
married.  He  himself  was  the  one,  but  for 
the  augury  to  have  come  true  it  should 


THE  LIGHTER  SIDE          101 

have  been  the  Crown  Prince,  who  also 
joined  us  for  a  little  while  that  evening. 
After  this  game  they  went  down  to  see 
the  Kaiserin,  who  was  in  bed,  not  being 
well. 

Prince  Adalbert  returned  to  me  shortly 
afterwards,  being  very  unhappy  because 
his  mother  would  not  allow  him  to  melt 
down  his  soldiers  and  manipulate  the  lead. 
She  had  said  if  one  of  the  governors  or 
tutors  or  any  of  the  Kaiser's  gentlemen 
was  there,  she  would  let  him  do  it.  In 
spite  of  their  absence,  he  held  his  soldiers 
over  the  flame  of  the  lamp,  and  I  had  to 
stop  him.  Then  he  sent  a  lackey  for  some 
spirit  to  assist  his  melting  arrangements, 
but  I  would  not  allow  that  either.  He 
was  very  disappointed  and  unhappy,  but 
quite  good  over  it,  and  I  finaUy  got  him 
to  turn  his  attention  to  a  game  of  halma. 

Among  indoor  games,  chess  was  first 
favourite,  with  Adalbert  at  any  rate. 
Then  came  halma  and  draughts,  but 
spillikins  and  puzzles  were  the  choice  of 
the  younger  boys.  "  Up  Jenkins "  was 


102  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

popular  with  all,  and  many  dirty  princely 
hands  did  I  see  extended  on  the  table  in 
the  course  of  this  game. 

Picnics  played  a  great  part  in  our  amuse- 
ments. Often  at  Potsdam,  if  it  were  a  fine 
day,  the  Kaiser  would  suddenly  take  it  into 
his  head  to  arrange  an  impromptu  picnic 
for  his  guests.  As  a  rule,  the  Princes  and 
I  did  not  go,  as  there  were  the  afternoon 
studies  to  attend  to.  But  sometimes  we 
went,  and  enjoyed  ourselves  greatly.  We 
sometimes  went  to  "  Pfauen  Insel,"  or 
Peacock  Island,  which  seemed  to  be  speci- 
ally kept  for  picnics. 

We  would  first  of  all  drive  down  to  the 
quay  and  board  the  Kaiser's  little  river 
steamer  "  Alexandria."  She  was  such  a 
beautiful  vesse],  painted  white,  and  kept 
spotless  ;  her  brasswork  gleaming  in  the 
sunshine  like  gold.  Reaching  the  island, 
we  would  go  straight  to  the  little  Schloss 
where  Queen  Louise  of  Prussia  stayed  for 
some  time,  it  being  a  favourite  resort  of 
hers.  I  was  told  that  it  was  on  that  island 
that  the  old  Emperor  William  and  the 


'•      ti 

^      .  51%, 


THE   LITTLE    PRINCESS    AND   HER    BROTHER   PRINCE  JOACHIM 


THE  LIGHTER  SIDE          103 

Empress  Augusta  took  refuge  before  escap- 
ing to  England  during  wars  with  France. 
I  conscientiously  noted  this  in  my  diary, 
as  being  of  historical  interest,  but  I  have 
since  found  out  that  my  informant's  history 
was  of  a  very  sketchy  character.  I  have 
nothing  by  me  to  look  it  up,  so  I  record  it 
with  all  due  diffidence. 

The  great  attraction  for  the  ladies  was 
the  examination  and  criticism  of  Queen 
Louise's  curious-looking  old  bonnets  stowed 
away  in  the  cupboards  upstairs.  In  other 
cupboards  were  to  be  found  several  old 
toys  belonging  to  her  children,  and  these 
were  naturally  more  interesting  to  the 
Princes  than  the  bonnets.  We  spent  one 
Whit-Monday  *  there, — that  time  it  was 
previously  arranged, — and  I  remember  we 
were  provided  with  all  kinds  of  amuse- 
ments, including  swings  and  switchbacks 
and  other  diversions  of  a  country  fair. 
The  Kaiser  presented  a  bouquet  of  flowers 
to  each  lady,  and  only  a  short  time  ago  I 
came  across  a  spray  of  mine  which  I  had 
pressed  and  treasured  all  these  years. 


104          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

To  me  not  the  least  interesting  part  of 
it  was  the  visitors'  book,  started  fifteen 
years  previously,  in  which  I  was  asked  to 
inscribe  my  name.  I  took  occasion  to 
peep  into  it  at  the  same  time,  and  found 
many  interesting  and  well-known  auto- 
graphs there,  among  others  that  of  King 
Edward  (when  Prince  of  Wales),  the 
Duke  and  Duchess  of  Connaught,  and 
many  other  notable  Royalties. 

I  used  to  enjoy  these  picnics  immensely ; 
they  entailed  no  work  for  me,  but  came  as 
a  pleasant  and  unexpected  relaxation  from 
my  daily  routine.  But  I  could  not  help 
noting  the  enormous  amount  of  labour 
which  these  seemingly  simple  affairs  en- 
tailed upon  those  responsible  for  the 
smooth  working  of  the  arrangements.  In 
ordinary  life,  far  from  gilded  palaces,  one 
pictures  a  well-filled  basket  and  a  tea- 
kettle as  the  essentials  of  a  picnic,  but  in 
these  Palace  ones  it  was  far  otherwise. 
First  of  all,  there  were  the  carriages  to 
take  the  guests  to  the  steamer,  which  had 
to  be  all  in  readiness  to  receive  the  august 


THE  LIGHTER  SIDE          105 

pleasure  -  seekers,  then  the  commissariat, 
which  naturally  occasioned  the  most 
trouble  of  all.  I  could  not  but  feel  that 
the  Kaiser's  sudden  desires  for  an  im- 
promptu picnic — though  delightful  enough 
for  many — must  have  been  very  distract- 
ing to  those  upon  whom  the  sudden  duty 
devolved.  I  have  seen  these  picnic  "  neces- 
sities "  under  way,  and  can  best  compare 
them  to  a  small  house-moving. 

Birthdays,  too,  were  red-letter  days  in 
the  annals  of  the  Princes'  youth.  Not 
only  in  youth,  but  right  up  to  old  age,  are 
birthdays  kept  in  Germany,  as  festive 
occasions  warranting  the  most  effusive 
congratulations — to  say  nothing  of  gifts 
— to  mark  the  great  fact  of  getting  older 
every  year.  Life  at  the  Court  was  plenti- 
fully interlarded  with  birthdays,  there 
being  seven  children's  to  keep  to  begin 
with.  But  the  celebrations  in  honour  of 
these  paled  into  insignificance  with  those 
of  the  Imperial  couple.  Of  them  more 
anon,  I  am  concerned  only  with  the 
children's  pleasures  just  now. 


io6          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

The  Princess's  fifth  birthday  on  Sep- 
tember 13, 1897,  I  seem  to  remember  best  ; 
I  suppose  because  on  that  day  her  nurse 
presented  me  with  a  bit  of  her  flaxen  hair 
as  a  peace-offering,  and  as  I  kept  for 
many  years  the  envelope  with  an  inscrip- 
tion on  it  to  that  effect,  it  thus  remained 
in  my  memory. 

Here  is  the  extract  from  my  diary  : 

"  To-day  is  the  Princess's  birthday.  We 
had  a  big  luncheon  downstairs.  The 
Kaiser  merely  shook  hands  with  me,  and 
is  not  like  himself.  He  had  a  portrait 
of  Queen  Victoria  brought  down  after 
luncheon,  and  he  and  Count  Eulenburg 
looked  at  it.  Then  they  joked  over 
'  made  in  Germany.'  Altogether  I  did 
not  enjoy  the  luncheon.  Count  Moltke  (a 
nephew  of  the  great  Moltke)  played  the 
piano,  and  the  children  danced ;  but  they 
never  asked  me  to  join  them,  as  usual." 

Evidently  on  that  birthday  I  was  out 
of  favour  !  1  think  I  was  more  appreciated 
the  year  previously,  when  the  Princess 
was  four  years  old.  There  was  a  big 


THE  LIGHTER  SIDE          107 

children's  party  in  the  Marmor  Palace 
(near  Potsdam,  where  the  Crown  Prince 
was  born),  and  the  little  Princess's  special 
idea  of  entertainment  for  her  small  guests 
was  to  provide  them  with  the  choice 
strains  of  a  barrel  organ. 

One  was  specially  chartered  for  the 
occasion,  the  lucky  organ-grinder  receiving 
twenty  marks  for  the  privilege  of  making 
an  unholy  noise,  which,  however,  the 
children  thought  most  delightful. 

In  accordance  with  custom,  there  was 
also  a  luncheon  given  to  all  the  Palace 
gardeners  that  day,  the  little  Princess  and 
her  brother  Joachim  acting  as  host  and 
hostess. 

The  head  gardener  had  to  get  up  and 
make  a  speech  of  thanks,  and  I  remember 
being  quite  sorry  for  him ;  he  was  so  ner- 
vous, it  seemed  as  if  he  would  never  get 
through  it. 

On  another  occasion  the  barrel  organ 
came  into  requisition  ;  it  was  on  the  night 
of  a  big  Court  ball  held  in  the  Weisser-Saal, 
in  Berlin.  The  Princes  were  most  anxious 


io8          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

to  sit  in  one  of  the  boxes  and  view  the 
dancing,  which  they  had  been  allowed 
to  do  on  former  occasions ;  but  their 
governors  had  come  to  the  conclusion 
they  were  now  too  old  for  this,  very  much 
to  their  disappointment.  After  a  quiet 
supper  with  them,  they  said  they  had  a 
great  favour  to  ask  of  me — that  they  had 
discovered  two  of  their  lackeys  were 
musicians,  one  playing  the  concertina  and 
the  other  the  barrel  organ.  Would  I 
allow  them  the  great  treat  of  sending  for 
those  lackeys  with  their  instruments,  so 
that  they  might  dance  to  the  music  ? 
Having  given  my  consent,  the  men  were 
called,  and  many  dances  ensued ;  but  I 
fain  would  have  had  some  cotton  wool  to 
deaden  the  appalling  noise. 

Prince  Au-Wi's  birthday  also  remains 
firmly  fixed  in  my  mind.  It  was  the  day 
before  his  august  father's,  and  for  that 
reason  the  boy  sometimes  came  off  rather 
badly,  everyone  being  obsessed  by  the 
auspicious  date  and  magnificent  celebra- 
tions of  the  morrow. 


THE  LIGHTER  SIDE          109 

One  year,  when  the  Kaiserin  was  not 
very  well,  she  asked  me  to  order  some 
presents  to  be  sent  for  her  to  choose  from, 
and  that  year  the  poor  little  Prince  had 
little  fuss  made  on  his  birthday,  no  con- 
gratulations or  anything,  his  august  mamma 
not  being  well  enough  to  do  anything. 
An  earlier  year,  though,  I  remember  a 
luncheon  of  thirty-two  people,  followed  by 
a  visit  to  the  circus.  Crowds  of  people 
packed  the  streets  all  the  way  from  the 
Schloss,  cheering  all  the  time.  We  were 
accommodated  in  a  lovely  box,  specially 
fitted  up  and  decorated  for  the  Royal 
Family  and  those  in  attendance.  The 
performance  was  too  funny ;  I  had  a 
giggling  fit  in  the  middle,  and  could  hardly 
stop  laughing.  There  were  two  nasty  acci- 
dents, which  rather  gave  one  shudders ;  but 
fortunately  no  one  was  hurt. 

When  we  got  home,  I  was  told  I  should 
not  be  "in  service  "  that  evening,  as  the 
Kaiserin  would  take  supper  with  the 
Princes.  I  decided  to  go  to  the  theatre 
with  one  of  the  ladies-in-waiting,  and  no 


i  io          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

sooner  had  I  begun  an  early  supper  than 
Prince  Adalbert  rushed  in  and  said  the 
Kaiserin  was  giving  a  ball  that  night  and 
wanted  me  to  come.  I  flew  to  ask  the 
ladies  what  it  all  meant,  and  was  told  it 
was  a  private  dance  for  the  Princes.  At  an 
hour's  notice  everything  had  to  be  pre- 
pared. The  ladies  and  gentlemen  had  all 
accepted  invitations  out ;  but  everyone 
had  to  forgo  their  engagements.  A  man 
was  ordered  to  play  the  dance  music, 
and  we  were  told  to  wear  what  we  liked. 
I  cannot  describe  what  an  enjoyable 
dance  it  was.  An  invitation  like  that 
I  felt  to  be  a  great  compliment,  as  it  was 
proof  that  I  was  trusted  and  that  they 
knew  I  would  never  talk.  There  was  no 
one  there  but  the  Court  ladies  and  gentle- 
men. None  of  the  teachers  was  asked, 
and  only  one  governor.  It  was  as  free  as 
air,  and  the  dresses  were  too  absurd. 
One  Princess's  lady  was  in  Court  dress, 
very  decolletee,  and  the  Princess  her- 
self in  a  demi-semi-toilette  ;  two  of  our 
ladies  in  high  cloth  tailor-mades;  the 


THE  LIGHTER  SIDE         in 

Kaiserin  in  a  high  supper  dress.  I  wore 
a  high  dress — terribly  crumpled  and  old. 
Herr  von  Rauch,  one  of  the  Princes' 
governors,  was  in  full  uniform  with  his 
orders.  The  Duke  of  Schleswig-Holstein  in 
half-dress  uniform.  Prince  Oscar  with  his 
face  blacked,  and  a  bath  towel  wound  round 
him  to  represent  a  Turk.  Prince  Au-Wi 
was  stuffed  out  with  pillows  to  make  him 
look  fat.  The  two  eldest  were  in  school 
clothes,  and  Prince  Adalbert  wore  naval 
uniform.  We  had  Lancers,  everyone 
dancing  ;  no  etiquette,  it  was  delightful. 
Refreshments  seemed  to  consist  chiefly 
of  tea  and  gingerbread.  Between-whiles 
numerous  telegrams  were  received  and 
sent.  As  the  lackeys  appeared  all  Court 
etiquette  returned,  and  we  made  our  bows 
to  the  Kaiserin  as  usual.  It  was  too 
funny  in  the  midst  of  it  all. 

The  whole  thing  was  so  free  and  easy 
that  I  think  I  enjoyed  myself  more  that 
night  than  any  other  time  I  remember 
during  my  three  years  in  Germany. 


CHAPTER   V 
MY  RELATIONS  WITH  THE  KAISER 

IN  stern  contrast  to  the  delightful  in- 
formality and  lack  of  ceremony  of 
Prince  Au-Wi's  birthday  dance  was 
the  Kaiser's  own  evening  reception  on 
the  following  day.  Well  indeed  do  I 
remember  it,  for  that  was  the  first  occasion 
on  which  I  was  formally  presented  to  him, 
some  few  weeks  after  my  arrival.  It  was 
a  very  busy  day  for  me,  as,  being  the 
only  Englishwoman  in  the  Court,  I  had  to 
present  bouquets  of  flowers  to  each  lady, 
together  with  my  congratulations,  and  also 
I  had  to  give  a  bouquet  to  each  of  the 
Princes. 

This  anniversary  was,  of  course,  the 
crown  of  birthdays  of  the  whole  year  ;  a 
very  busy  day  for  all  of  us,  and  especially 
so  for  the  Kaiser  himself. 


THE  KAISER  113 

As  early  as  9  a.m.  I  had  to  send  down 
my  flowers  and  congratulations,  and  very 
soon  afterwards  the  Countess  von  Bassewitz 
came  up  to  thank  me  and  to  congratulate 
me  on  our  Queen's  approaching  Jubilee. 

Half  the  morning  they  spent  congratu- 
lating each  other  on  the  birthday  honours 
which  they  had  received.  We  shook  hands 
all  round  and  wished  the  Kaiser  "  many 
happy  returns  of  the  day."  Having  but 
recently  arrived  at  the  Court,  I  held  aloof 
and  felt  rather  out  of  it,  as  everyone 
seemed  to  know  the  Emperor  so  well ;  it 
was  not  until  later  in  the  day  that  I  was 
formally  presented. 

Then  I  went  up  to  dress  for  going  to 
chapel  with  all  the  Royalties,  Princes, 
and  Princesses,  and  the  whole  of  the  Court 
entourage. 

My  place  was  right  up  in  the  gallery. 
It  meant  climbing  literally  hundreds  of 
steps.  The  crush  was  terrible,  and  when 
I  got  there  it  was  so  appallingly  hot  that  I 
turned  quite  giddy  when  I  looked  down, 
and  felt  if  I  stayed  another  minute  I 


n4          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

should  faint,  so  I  slipped  away  and  did 
not  wait  for  the  service.  Fortunately  no 
one  noticed  my  disappearance. 

Nothing  very  much  happened  in  the 
afternoon,  at  least  as  far  as  I  knew  ;  but 
having  received  my  first  formal  invitation 
to  dine  that  night  with  the  Imperial 
couple,  I  was  very  much  concerned  with 
my  toilet  for  the  auspicious  occasion.  I  had 
intended  wearing  my  one  dress  with  a 
Court  train.  The  colour  was  eau-de-nil, 
and  it  was  the  best  and  richest  frock  I 
had. 

To  my  dismay,  I  suddenly  found  out 
that  the  Kaiserin  had  selected  a  dress  of 
that  particular  shade  to  wear  at  the  dinner, 
and  it  would  be  against  Court  etiquette  for 
me  to  wear  a  frock  of  the  same  colour.  I 
was  in  despair,  but  by  superhuman  efforts 
managed  to  get  another  dress  suitably 
altered  for  the  occasion. 

What  a  lot  I  learnt  on  that  day  !  I 
knew  nothing  of  presentations  or  of  Court 
formality  then,  and  was  very  apprehensive 
as  to  whether  I  should  acquit  myself  with 


THE  KAISER  115 

dignity  and  commit  no  solecisms.  The 
ladies  assured  me  I  need  not  be  nervous, 
there  was  nothing  to  be  afraid  of,  and  they 
would  tell  me  what  to  do  ;  but  that  I  must 
be  certain  to  be  down  early  in  the  ante- 
room. 

There  was  little  fear  of  my  not  obeying 
this  injunction  ;  I  began  to  dress  at  least 
one  hour  too  soon,  and  was  ready  long 
before  the  appointed  time. 

To  get  to  the  ante-room  I  had  to  go  down 
a  very  broad  stone  staircase,  carpeted  with 
red.  It  was  used  mainly  for  State  occasions, 
and  I  had  not  previously  been  down  it,  so 
I  had  to  ask  my  way  from  the  various 
footmen  and  lackeys,  whose  blaze  of  gold 
and  silver  uniforms  quite  dazzled  me  for 
the  moment. 

In  some  fear  and  trepidation  I  entered 
the  apartment,  only  to  find  that  I  was  the 
first  arrival,  there  being  no  one  there  but 
myself. 

Later  I  was  told  that  it  was  quite  correct 
for  me  to  arrive  first,  being  the  least  im- 
portant of  the  ladies  present. 


u6          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

Mercifully  I  was  not  left  long  alone,  the 
other  ladies  soon  following,  among  them 
my  good  friend  the  Countess  von  Bassewitz. 

Each  lady  seemed  to  time  her  arrival 
in  accordance  with  her  status  in  the  Court, 
the  Mistress  of  the  Robes  coming  in  almost 
last ;  and  if  ever  a  leech  stuck  tightly,  it 
was  myself  to  those  ladies  that  night. 

The  room  soon  began  to  fill  with  guests, 
and  again  I  felt  dazzled  by  the  gorgeous 
uniforms  and  beautiful  dresses,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  scintillating  jewels  on  every 
side.  I  was  introduced  to  various  people, 
but  I  was  far  too  dazed  to  take  in  their 
identity.  Soon  a  buzz  of  conversation 
filled  the  hall,  the  guttural  German  tongue 
sounding  somehow  much  louder  than 
English  would  on  such  an  occasion. 

Suddenly  there  was  a  hush,  and  I  looked 
up,  to  see  the  immense  folding  doors  flung 
wide  open  and  all  present  forming  them- 
selves into  a  circle  to  receive  Their  Majesties. 

As  they  entered,  every  one  present  made 
a  marvellous  bow,  something  between  a 
curtsy  and  a  dignified  inclination  of  the 


THE  KAISER  117 

head  ;  I  cannot  explain  how  it  was  done. 
I  copied  it  as  best  I  could,  but  it  must  have 
been  all  too  evident  that  I  was  not  trained 
in  such  deportment. 

Well  do  I  remember  that  first  sight  of 
the  Kaiser  and  Kaiserin  entering  the  hall 
together,  he  arrayed  in  gorgeous  uniform 
with  countless  orders  sparkling  on  his 
breast ;  she,  one  blaze  of  diamonds,  wear- 
ing the  eau-de-nil  dress  that  was  the  cause 
of  so  much  heartburning  to  me  that  after- 
noon. Hers  was  embroidered  with  tiny 
silver  beads,  and  the  iridescent  effect  of 
these  was  beautiful,  like  sunlight  on  the 
sea  when  it  takes  on  that  peculiar  green 
shade  to  which  the  Nile  waters  give  their 
name. 

They  walked  round  the  circle,  stopping 
to  speak  to  each  person.  As  they  ap- 
proached nearer  and  nearer,  I  began  to 
feel  more  and  more  nervous  ;  my  knees 
trembled,  and  when  I  realized  that  I  would 
have  to  make  two  more  bows,  one  to  each, 
I  thought  they  would  give  way  under  me. 

At  last  the  awful  moment  arrived.     The 


n8          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

Kaiserin  came  first,  for  which  I  was 
thankful  ;  I  had  already  seen  something 
of  her,  and  did  not  mind  her  so  much.  I 
managed  to  kiss  her  hand  and  get  through 
my  curtsy,  after  which  I  found  the  Kaiser 
right  in  front  of  me,  and  I  was  being  pre- 
sented to  him  by  the  Mistress  of  the  Robes. 
Recovering  from  my  further  bowing  effort, 
I  found  to  my  relief  that  he  was  not  so 
terrible  as  I  had  feared.  He  was  really  very 
kind  to  me,  and  put  me  quite  at  my  ease. 
He  chatted  gaily  of  his  boyhood  and  of 
a  certain  visit  to  his  grandmother,  Queen 
Victoria,  saying  how  much  he  had  en- 
joyed it. 

"  Yes/'  he  said,  "  my  grandmamma  had 
great  ideas  on  the  healthy  schoolboy's 
thick  bread  and  limited  butter." 

He  was  not  quite  so  good-looking  as  his 
photograph,  but,  to  give  him  his  due,  he 
really  impressed  me  then  as  an  extremely 
handsome  man.  Still  in  his  thirties,  his 
figure  was  upright  and  not  too  stout  ;  and 
he  seemed  to  me  the  embodiment  of  energy 
and  vigour.  He  spoke  excellent  English, 


THE  KAISER  119 

though  his  voice  sounded  a  little  harsh, 
despite  its  ring  of  kindness.  His  keen 
blue  eyes  had  an  extraordinary  sense  of 
penetration  in  them — they  seemed  to  look 
one  through  and  through. 

His  left  hand,  about  which  so  much  has 
been  written,  is  certainly  smaller  than  the 
other  and  does  not  look  quite  normal.  It 
is,  however,  not  particularly  noticeable, 
because  the  Kaiser  refrains  from  using  it 
unless  obliged  to  do  so. 

He  is  very  fond  of  rings,  and  almost  each 
finger  is  adorned  by  them — this  is  a  custom 
which  I  could  never  get  used  to.  The  stones 
of  his  rings  are  of  wonderful  brilliance,  and 
some  of  great  size. 

Here  I  might  mention  the  strength  he 
puts  into  his  handshake,  which  is  certainly 
most  painful  to  the  recipient.  I  have 
really  suffered  agonies  through  my  rings 
being  crushed  into  my  flesh  by  his  terrible 
grip. 

The  dinner  that  night  was  a  very  elabor- 
ate affair.  I  remember  I  had  a  long  talk 
with  one  of  the  Kaiser's  aides-de-camp. 


120  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

Incidentally  he  touched  on  the  unfriendly 
feelings  of  England  towards  Germany,  but 
I  remembered  my  father's  excellent  advice 
never  to  let  myself  be  drawn  into  any 
political  talk,  so  I  pretended  that  I  knew 
nothing  about  it. 

"  Then/'  said  he,  "  do  you,  my  dear 
young  lady,  know  nothing  of  politics  ?  " 

"  English  ladies  are  not  interested  in 
politics,"  I  replied  sweepingly.  (Suffra- 
gettes in  those  days  were  few  and  far 
between.) 

"  I  beg  your  pardon,"  he  retorted,  "  I 
get  more  letters  on  politics  from  English 
ladies  than  from  men." 

"  I  fear,  then,  that  I  must  plead  ignor- 
ance," said  I,  and  there  the  matter  ended. 

There  was  generally  a  grand  gala  per- 
formance at  the  opera,  to  celebrate  the 
Imperial  birthday,  but  this  I  will  describe 
elsewhere. 

So  much  has  been  written  about  the 
Kaiser  that  I  feel  a  little  diffident  of  adding 
my  small  quota  to  the  innumerable  volumes 
on  his  personality,  to  be  found  in  the 


THE  KAISER  121 

libraries  of  every  land  to-day.  But  his  is 
the  central  figure  of  Germany,  nay,  of 
Europe,  and — in  his  own  opinion — of  the 
world  ;  and  did  I  omit  him  from  my  story, 
it  would  indeed  be  incomplete. 

That  he  is  a  brilliant  and  forceful  per- 
sonality no  one  who  has  ever  come  in 
contact  with  him  can  for  a  moment  doubt. 
Had  he  not  been  born  to  his  Imperial 
destiny  he  yet  would  have  achieved  fame 
as  a  leader  of  men  by  his  extraordinary 
power  of  moulding  them  to  his  will. 
Erratic,  domineering,  even  puerile  at 
times,  yet  his  people  love  him  and  respect 
him.  That  is  to  say,  half  of  them  do — the 
other  half  hate  him  ;  but  they  all  do  what 
he  tells  them.  To  the  greatest  sacrifice 
and  to  the  smallest  detail  of  their  daily 
lives  they  let  him  order  them  as  he  will. 
Fond  of  a  joke,  seeing  humour  when  others 
felt  only  humiliation,  he  would  throw  back 
his  head  and  laugh  heartily  at  the  slightest 
thing.  A  brilliant  conversationalist,  his 
stories  were  always  excellent,  and  free  from 
that  fault  of  so  many  raconteurs,  repetition 


122  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

till  one  knows  their  anecdotes  by  heart. 
I  do  not  even  remember  his  telling  the  same 
tale  twice. 

He  had  an  excellent  memory,  very  useful 
for  Royalties  ;  I  suppose  they  take  special 
care  to  develop  them.  Once  he  asked  me 
for  news  of  my  friend  who  had  been  gover- 
ness to  the  Kaiserin,  and  I  told  him  she 
was  living  in  Buckinghamshire.  That  day 
he  went  away  for  six  weeks,  and  the  first 
time  I  saw  him  on  his  return  he  referred 
to  all  the  details  of  this  conversation  as 
being  the  last  thing  I  had  said  to  him. 

Another  time,  when  we  were  staying  at 
the  little  Schloss  of  Urville,  some  few  miles 
from  Metz,  a  tiny  little  place  compared 
with  the  other  palaces,  he  asked  me  how  I 
liked  it,  and  I  replied  that  it  was  a  charming 
little  doll's  house. 

More  than  a  year  afterwards,  he  somewhat 
startled  me  at  luncheon  by  asking  if  I 
would  like  to  visit  his  doll's  house  again. 
I  had  forgotten  my  remark  about  Schloss 
Urville,  but  he  had  not. 

My  relations  with  him  were,  I  must  say, 


THE  KAISER  123 

of  a  most  friendly  nature ;  he  really  was 
extremely  kind  to  me.  He  used  to  talk 
much  of  England  with  me,  and  was  always 
ready  to  put  me  at  my  ease,  though  when 
he  was  in  a  teasing  mood,  I  was  occasionally 
marked  out  as  the  laughing-stock  of  the 
Court.  It  was  chiefly  due  to  my  bad 
German.  I  remember  one  day,  at  luncheon, 
I  found  myself  on  the  Kaiser's  left,  an 
honour  which  had  never  before  been  ac- 
corded me.  Suddenly  he  took  away  my 
soup  spoon. 

"  Now  is  your  chance  to  speak  German, 
Miss  Howard.  Ask  for  a  spoon,"  he  said. 

Turning  to  the  lackey  behind  my  chair, 
I  ordered  him  to  bring  me  "  einen  grossen 
Teufel,"  instead  of  "  einen  grossen  Loffel," 
the  word  for  spoon.  Roars  of  laughter 
greeted  this,  foremost  among  them  being 
the  Kaiser's  own.  I  had  asked  for  "a  big 
devil  "  to  be  brought  to  me  instead  of  a 
big  spoon  ! 

Two  days  later  I  received  a  paragraph 
from  a  German  newspaper  to  the  effect 
that  the  modern  English  girl  was  a  very 


124          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

go-ahead  young  person,  and  that  one  of 
them,  when  accorded  the  honour  of  sitting 
next  to  the  Kaiser  himself,  had  had  the 
temerity  to  call  her  spoon  a  devil  ! 

Another  time  when  my  German  led  me 
astray  I  was  walking  along  in  the  grounds 
of  the  Palace,  and  met  one  of  the  governors, 
who  proposed  going  on  the  lake.  There 
was  a  bad  storm  brewing,  and  I  laughingly 
said  to  him  in  German,  "  If  you  go  you 
will  be  drowned  "  ;  but  in  my  still  limited 
vocabulary  I  used  the  word  "  betrunken  " 
for  "  drowned,"  instead  of  the  correct 
word,  which  is  "  ertrunken."  I  was 
not  made  to  realize  my  mistake  then, 
but  that  day  at  luncheon,  the  Kaiser 
called  me  to  him,  and  said,  teasingly, 
"  What  do  you  mean  by  accusing  one  of 
my  officers  of  drinking  ?  "  I  did  not 
understand  what  he  meant,  but,  to  the 
intense  amusement  of  everyone  present, 
it  was  carefully  explained  to  me  that  I  had 
used  the  word  meaning  "  intoxicated  "in- 
stead of  the  word  for  "  drowned  "  ! 

My  natural  short-sightedness,  as  well  as 


THE  KAISER  125 

my  insufficient  German,  was  the  cause  of 
many  pitfalls.  I  found  myself  occasionally 
bowing  to  one  of  the  Kaiser's  gentlemen, 
mistaking  him  for  the  Emperor  himself, 
and  on  one  awful  occasion  I  publicly 
insulted  the  Kaiser  by  failing  to  make  my 
bow,  as  I  did  not  recognize  him. 

It  was  during  my  first  year,  and  I  had 
received  orders  to  be  in  attendance,  driving 
alone  behind  the  Kaiserin,  who  was  taking 
the  youngest  children,  Prince  Joachim  and 
the  little  Princess,  to  see  the  manoeuvres 
at  Potsdam. 

This  command  to  be  in  attendance 
was  contrary  to  my  usual  duties,  which 
were  supposed  to  be  entirely  with  the 
Princes. 

Everything  was  still  rather  new  and 
strange  to  me,  and  I  was  so  terribly  afraid 
of  letting  my  sense  of  humour  assert  itself 
when  on  duty,  that  I  habitually  preserved 
a  most  solemn  demeanour ;  so  much  so 
that  one  of  the  officers  in  attendance  had 
chaffingly  declared  that  he  would  make  me 
laugh  while  "  im  Dienst "  (in  service), 


126          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

which  would,  of  course,  have  been  strictly 
against  etiquette. 

I  thought  of  this  while  driving  along 
behind  the  Empress  through  the  crowded 
streets  of  Potsdam,  and,  when  we  were 
still  some  little  way  off  the  Palace  gates, 
I  saw  three  officers  ride  forward  and  greet 
the  Kaiserin.  On  leaving  her,  to  my 
intense  astonishment,  they  came  on  to 
my  carriage,  and  one  of  them  said,  "  Good 
morning,  Miss  Howard."  I  am  naturally 
short-sighted,  and  at  once  concluded  that 
this  must  be  the  officer  who  had  resolved 
to  make  me  laugh  in  service.  Without, 
therefore,  looking  his  way,  in  case  he  was 
trying  by  some  means  or  other  to  make  me 
succumb  as  he  had  foretold,  I  gave  him 
an  abrupt  "  Good  morning,"  and  proceeded 
on  my  way.  On  arrival  at  the  Palace, 
the  Mistress  of  the  Robes  and  the  other 
ladies-in-waiting  were  all  ranged  up  in  a 
row  to  receive  the  Kaiserin.  No  sooner 
was  this  over  than  the  Mistress  of  the 
Robes  sent  for  me,  and  told  me  that  I 
might  consider  myself  in  disgrace,  that 


THE  KAISER  127 

the  Kaiser  was  furious,  and  that  I  had 
publicly  insulted  him.  Then  only  did  I 
learn,  to  my  horror,  the  magnitude  of  my 
mistake.  It  was  the  Kaiser  himself  who 
had  graciously  wished  me  "  Good  morning  " 
on  the  way,  and,  instead  of  bowing  and 
replying  as  etiquette  demanded,  I  had 
behaved  in  the  rudest  manner  possible, 
and  that  publicly.  I  at  once  wrote  a 
humble  apology,  explaining  my  unfortun- 
ate short-sightedness.  I  am  glad  to  say 
I  heard  no  more  of  the  incident,  with 
the  exception  of  a  command  to  carry  lorg- 
nettes on  all  State  occasions  in  future. 
This  was  a  great  concession,  as  it  was 
contrary  to  etiquette  to  look  at  Royalty 
through  any  kind  of  glasses. 

Once  during  the  autumn  of  my  first  year 
I  found  myself  given  a  holiday — the  whole 
Royal  Family  was  going  out.  Delighted 
with  my  unexpected  freedom,  I  immedi- 
ately made  up  my  mind  to  go  for  a  long 
country  walk. 

As  I  have  previously  explained,  I  was 
not  allowed  to  wear  a  coat  and  skirt  or  a 


128          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

sailor  hat,  it  being  considered  that  I  looked 
too  young  in  such  attire.  But  being  my 
own  mistress  for  once,  I  put  on  the  oldest 
coat  and  skirt  I  had,  together  with  my 
dear  old  sailor  hat,  and — joy  of  joys — 
I  thought  I  would  dispense  with  gloves, 
the  constant  wearing  of  which  I  found 
most  irksome. 

However,  at  the  last  moment,  my  con- 
science smote  me,  as  I  thought  how  the 
Kaiserin  would  disapprove  of  my  getting 
rough  and  red  hands.  Suddenly  an  idea 
occurred  to  me — I  would  chop  off  the 
fingers,  and  thereby  get  a  certain  amount 
of  freedom. 

It  was  a  beautiful  autumn  day,  and  I 
started  off  in  a  very  happy  mood,  feeling 
absolutely  free,  and  even  singing  out  of 
pure  joy  of  life.  Going  down  a  broad  path, 
I  saw  three  officers  in  the  distance,  coming 
towards  me.  As  they  drew  nearer,  I  did 
this  time  manage  to  recognize  the  Kaiser 
— the  last  person  I  wanted  to  meet  in  my 
old  clothes.  He  stopped  and  spoke  to  me 
in  his  usual  friendly  manner,  and  held  out 


THE  KAISER  129 

his  hand  as  he  said  "  Good  morning."  I 
had  carefully  kept  mine  behind  my  back, 
and,  as  I  was  hesitating  as  to  whether  I 
should  keep  them  there,  he  said,  "Aren't 
you  going  to  shake  hands  with  me  this 
morning  ? ' ' 

"  Your  Majesty,"  I  stammered  out,  "  I 
have  no  fingers  to  my  gloves." 

'  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  he  said, 
naturally  not  understanding  what  on  earth 
I  could  mean. 

In  consternation,  I  held  out  both  hands 
towards  him,  and  roars  of  laughter  fol- 
lowed. 

It  seemed  to  me  that  he  was  less  of 
a  stickler  for  etiquette  than  the  Kaiserin. 
I  think  she  would  have  been  really  shocked 
at  such  an  incident,  while  he  only  took  it 
as  a  joke. 

Another  small  contretemps,  which 
occurred  during  luncheon  one  day,  and 
which  greatly  amused  the  Kaiser,  was 
this.  I  had  dressed  in  a  great  hurry,  and 
had  forgotten  to  put  on  my  rings.  Noticing 
that  I  had  left  them  on  my  dressing- 
9 


130          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

table,  my  housemaid  took  them  down  to 
my  lackey,  who  stupidly  placed  them  in- 
side my  serviette.  Upon  opening  it,  out 
flew  my  rings  across  the  table,  one  of 
them  landing  on  the  Kaiser's  plate.  He 
threw  back  his  head  and  laughed. 

"  Hullo,  Miss  Howard,"  he  exclaimed. 
"  Shot  at  a  pigeon,  and  killed  a  crow — 
eh?" 

His  laughter  was  really  very  infectious  ; 
he  seemed  to  thoroughly  enjoy  a  joke, 
and,  though  he  put  one  quite  at  one's  ease 
after  a  little  incident  such  as  the  above, 
yet  one  had  the  feeling  that  he  rather 
revelled  in  one's  discomfiture,  or  perhaps 
I  should  say  that  he  appeared  to  be  grateful 
to  one  for  providing  a  diversion  from  the 
stiffness  of  Court  life. 

He  had  an  odd  way  of  suddenly  be- 
coming very  stern  and  withering  people 
up.  Often  in  the  middle  of  talking  and 
laughing  quite  gaily,  he  would  whirl  round 
and  address  one  particular  individual, 
riveting  his  eyes  on  the  unfortunate 
victim  of  his  displeasure,  though  the  scorn 


THE  KAISER  131 

implied  by  his  fierce  gaze  was  not  expressed 
in  so  many  words.  Often  again  at  meals, 
when  talking  to  no  one  in  particular,  I 
noticed  his  laughing  blue  eyes  suddenly 
grow  hard,  while  he  fixed  a  keen  side  glance 
on  some  unfortunate  person  who  had  un- 
wittingly incurred  his  Royal  censure. 

The  only  time  I  ever  really  got  into 
serious  trouble  with  him  was  on  a  question 
of  English  grammar.  Prince  Adalbert  had 
to  pass  an  examination  to  get  into  the 
Navy,  and  his  English  was  a  source  of 
much  trouble  to  both  teacher  and  taught. 
Many  tedious  hours  did  we  spend  over 
the  intricacies  of  English  spelling  and 
pronunciation.  Sometimes  the  governors 
said  I  gave  him  too  much  preparation  ; 
sometimes  they  would  declare  that  I  did 
not  give  him  enough.  We  both  had  to 
work  hard  at  it,  as  I  felt,  if  we  did  not,  he 
would  never  get  through  his  examination. 
He  would  spell  the  simple  phrase  "  she 
does  "  as  "  che  dus,"  and  I  remember  a 
tremendous  argument,  not  to  say  a  heated 
controversy,  over  the  use  of  the  subjunctive. 


132  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

I  had  corrected  his  "  if  I  was  "  to  "  if  I  were," 
and  this  he  could  not  see  the  sense  of. 
However,  I  maintained  that,  even  if  he 
could  not  see  the  necessity  for  doing  as  I 
told  him,  he  must  submit  for  obedience' 
sake,  which  he  finally  did. 

After  this  tussle  with  him,  I  did  not 
think  to  hear  any  more  of  the  incident, 
and  I  was  therefore  rather  disgusted  to 
get  a  message  from  the  Kaiser  that  the 
phrase  in  question  had  been  repeated  to 
him,  and  he  disapproved  of  Prince  Adalbert's 
being  taught  ungrammatical  English.  I 
offered  to  prove  the  accuracy  of  my  teach- 
ing by  Morris's  English  grammar ;  but 
the  Kaiser  replied  that  he  ought  to  know 
what  was  correct  and  what  was  not,  as 
his  Grandmother  was  English ! 

All  that  I  had  heard  about  him  seemed 
to  me  more  or  less  true.  His  idea  of 
women  was  well  known,  even  at  that 
time,  and  every  lady  in  the  Palace  pre- 
tended to  have  no  other  interests  in  life 
beyond  the  three  k's,  "  Kiiche,  Kirche,  und 
Kinder "  (kitchen,  church,  and  children), 


THE  KAISER  133 

which  represented  his  view  of  woman's 
only  sphere.  I  found  it  quite  true  that  he 
took  an  inordinate  interest  in  Her  Majesty's 
dresses,  often  helping  her  in  her  choice, 
and  every  year,  on  the  occasion  of  her 
birthday,  presenting  her  with  a  dozen 
hats. 

That  he  suffered  from  a  certain  Wander- 
lust was  very  evident. 

He  seemed  to  be  always  travelling,  always 
away  on  some  expedition  or  other  ;  though, 
during  the  three  years  of  my  service,  he 
did  not  leave  the  Fatherland  very  often. 

He  possessed  about  forty  palaces,  and 
would  constantly  move  about  from  one  to 
the  other,  sometimes  alone  with  a  small 
retinue,  sometimes  accompanied  by  the 
whole  Court. 

I  remember  on  one  occasion,  during 
these  journeys,  we  were  looking  out  of  the 
window  of  the  Royal  train  while  passing 
through  flat  country  with  many  green 
fields.  He  asked  me  to  notice  the  fact 
that  they  were  unblemished  by  advertise- 
ments as  in  England ;  that  no  "  Little 


134          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

Liver  Pills,"  or  their  German  equivalent, 
arose  to  mar  the  beauty  of  the  country 
that  we  passed  through. 

"  I  don't  allow  my  fields  to  be  spoilt  in 
that  way,"  he  said,  "  but  in  England  you 
do  not  seem  to  mind  at  all." 

Travelling  again  through  Germany,  little 
more  than  a  year  ago,  I  was  very  much 
struck  by  the  advertisements  to  be  seen 
from  the  train,  proving  a  commercial  de- 
velopment of  Germany  with  which  the 
Kaiser  has  apparently  thought  it  inadvis- 
able to  interfere. 

When  he  returned  from  one  of  his  in- 
numerable journeys  we  would  often  go 
to  the  station  to  meet  him — the  Kaiserin 
and  all  the  children  that  happened  to 
be  at  home.  I  remember  once  he  had 
been  on  a  hunting  expedition,  and  the  six 
Princes  and  the  little  Princess  stood  in 
single  file  on  the  platform  and  saluted  as 
the  train  came  in.  He  stepped  out  of  it, 
wearing  his  Jdger  or  hunting  uniform.  It 
was  a  very  pretty  and  artistic  shade  of 
green,  and  became  him  well.  The  Imperial 


THE  KAISER  135 

couple  embraced  each  other,  and  then  he 
gave  each  of  his  seven  children  a  kiss,  and 
they  all  drove  back  to  the  Palace. 

His  little  daughter  was  his  favourite 
child ;  with  his  sons  he  was  somewhat 
stern,  though  I  have  seen  him  unbend  and 
behave  with  them  like  a  schoolboy  at 
times.  He  seemed  to  me  a  wonderful 
personality,  though  complex  and  difficult 
to  understand. 

Impulsive  to  a  degree,  he  nevertheless 
would  have  very  good  reasons  to  explain 
his  actions.  I  may  be  maligning  him,  but 
somehow  I  got  the  impression  that  what- 
ever course  he  happened  to  want  to  pursue, 
he  invariably  described  it  as  his  duty. 
He  seemed  to  me  to  want  to  justify  his 
actions  to  his  own  conscience,  if  he  pos- 
sessed such  a  thing.  At  the  time  I  honestly 
thought  he  did,  and  I  must  say  his  behaviour 
to  me  was  such  as  to  make  me  really  have 
a  regard  for  him  then. 

Though  he  was  always  very  kind  to  me, 
he  never  gave  me  any  reason  to  believe 
that  he  particularly  appreciated  my  work, 


i36          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

and  it  was  therefore  a  pleasant  surprise  to 
me  in  later  years,  when  called  to  Japan  to 
educate  some  young  Princes,  to  be  told 
that  the  Kaiser  had  sent  a  long  telegram 
congratulating  them  on  having  secured  my 
services  as  English  governess. 

And  this  incident  brings  to  my  mind  the 
fact  that  while  I  was  in  Berlin  the  Kaiser 
had  a  very  strong  feeling  against  all  Jews, 
and  none  were  admitted  to  Court.  So 
strictly  was  this  enforced  that  on  one 
occasion  when  a  friend,  whose  father  was 
a  Jew,  suggested  coming  to  see  me,  I  had 
to  write  and  refuse. 

Evidently  this  antipathy  must  have  con- 
siderably decreased,  for  on  my  first  journey 
to  Japan  one  of  my  fellow-passengers  was 
Herr  Ballin,  the  head  of  the  American- 
Hamburg  line.  It  happened  that  the 
Kaiserin,  in  her  kindness,  had  telegraphed 
to  the  captain  of  this  German  liner 
"  Kiaouchou "  commanding  him  to  take 
special  care  of  me  on  the  voyage,  the  result 
being  that  I  was  somewhat  feted.  Herr 
Ballin  was  most  kind  to  me,  and  promised 


THE  KAISER  137 

me  at  the  time  that  should  home-sickness 
overpower  me  he  would  manage  to  get  me 
a  free  passage  back.  I  noticed  then  how 
much  in  favour  he  was  with  the  Kaiser, 
and  being  a  Jew,  it  struck  me  that  changes 
had  taken  place  in  this  direction. 


CHAPTER    VI 
THE  KAISERIN 

OF  the  German  Emperor's  gracious 
consort  I  have  many  happy  recol- 
lections.    She  was  really  very  kind 
to  me,  particularly  so  at  the  beginning  of 
my  service,  and  again  at  the  end. 

In  the  middle  period  of  my  time  in 
Germany,  in  the  year  1897,  things  seemed 
to  go  rather  badly  for  me.  She  ceased 
writing  and  telegraphing  to  me  as  was 
her  wont  when  away  from  the  Princes, 
and  would  give  all  her  orders  about  the 
children  through  their  governors  or  Mrs. 

M ,    the    English    head    nurse    before 

mentioned. 

Perhaps  I  had  done  something  to  incur 
this  treatment,  but  after  the  extremely 
kind  and  friendly  letters  she  was  in  the 

habit  of  writing  me,  I  confess  I  felt  some- 

138 


THE  KAISERIN  139 

what  hurt  that  she  should  give  her  orders 
through  others. 

I  had  gone  there  expecting  to  find  her 
something  of  a  nonentity,  thinking  that 
her  personality  would  be  overshadowed  by 
that  of  His  Majesty,  and  that  she  would 
be  a  woman  with  no  broader  ideas  than 
those  laid  down  for  her  by  the  Kaiser's 
three  k's,  "  Kiiche,  Kirche,  and  Kinder " 
(kitchen,  church,  and  children),  which  I 
mentioned  in  my  last  chapter. 

I  soon  found  that  I  was  mistaken. 
Although  she  played  second  fiddle,  she 
seemed  to  do  it  from  the  point  of  view  of 
diplomacy,  and  very  successful  diplomacy 
it  was.  She  was  always  deferential  to  his 
opinions,  except  when  they  clashed  with 
her  maternal  solicitude  ;  and  then  she 
managed  to  get  her  own  way  without  fuss. 
She  was  always  ready  to  do  whatever  he 
wished,  ride  with  him  when  he  asked  her, 
go  wherever  he  pleased — and  was  altogether 
an  excellent  wife. 

Extremely  dignified,  she  ever  bore  herself 
in  a  manner  worthy  of  an  Empress,  and 


140          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

befitting  her  position  as  such.  Yet  she 
was  not  patronizing  :  she  was  kindness 
itself,  but  I  somehow  never  felt  quite  so 
much  at  my  ease  with  her  as  with  the 
Kaiser. 

Perhaps  my  early  impressions,  taken 
from  my  diary,  best  describe  this  feel- 
ing: 

"  At  present  I  am  shy  with  the  Empress. 
She  is  very  charming,  but  I  feel  I  shall 
never  advance  with  her — never  get  to  know 
her  well,  as  my  predecessor  seems  to  have 
done." 

In  later  days  I  certainly  did  get  to  know 
her  well,  in  that  we  discussed  things  to- 
gether very  frankly,  but  I  was  never 
absolutely  at  my  ease  with  her. 

The  greatest  thing  about  her  was  her 
intense  mother-love. 

Whenever  she  had  a  spare  moment — 
whenever  she  could  make  the  time — she 
would  always  be  with  her  children.  With 
her  boys  she  had  a  tremendous  influence, 


THE  KAISERIN  141 

and  it  was  she  who  was  personally 
responsible  for  their  moral  and  religious 
teaching. 

Oftentimes,  when  she  had  had  but  little 
chance  of  seeing  them  during  the  day,  she 
would  send  for  them  when  dressing  for 
dinner  in  the  evening,  and  I  would  go  down 
with  them.  There  she  stood,  being  arrayed 
in  her  beautiful  clothes,  and  having 
jewellery  put  on  as  she  spoke  ;  talking  to 
her  children  simply  and  naturally  like  any 
ordinary  mother,  asking  them  about  their 
lessons,  and  whether  they  had  done  them 
well ;  quite  oblivious  to  anything  but  her 
boys  and  their  immediate  interests. 

Her  letters  to  me  all  breathed  the  spirit 
of  motherliness.  Perhaps  they  are  the 
truest  index  to  her  character  that  I  can  give, 
so  I  will  quote  one,  written  from  Homburg- 
vor-der-H6he,  whither  she  had  gone  for 
rest  and  change  to  recuperate  after  her  ill- 
health  the  previous  winter. 

Written  in  English,  on  note-paper  em- 
bossed in  gold  with  the  Royal  crown  and 
monogram,  her  pencilled  note — in  hand- 


142  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

writing  not   unlike    Queen   Alexandra's — 
runs  thus  : 

"  HOMBURG,  March  31,  1898 
"  MY  DEAR  Miss  HOWARD, — Many  thanks 
for  your  letter  just  received.  I  was  so  glad 
to  hear  some  particulars  about  the  children. 
I  am  very  glad  they  had  no  more  lessons 
to  do  after  tea.  My  poor  little  Oscar,  he 
is  really  an  affectionate  little  man  !  To 
think  that  in  spite  of  his  ambitions  he 
would  prefer  to  remain  in  a  lower  class  so 
as  to  have  me  a  little  more  ! 

"  I  am  most  terribly  put  out  that  Dr. 
Zuncker  persuaded  the  Emperor  not  to  let 
the  poor  children  come  here  after  Easter. 
It  is  such  a  pity,  for  had  I  known  before 
I  would  not  have  told  them  they  might 
come :  this  is  worse  now.  However,  they 
must  only  be  told  after  the  examination, 
or  I  am  sure  it  would  have  a  bad  effect  on 
the  lessons. 

"This  place  is  quite  charming,  the  air  so 
bracing,  the  quiet  such  a  blessing.  I  feel 
quite  different,  even  this  short  time.  I  am 
quite  sure  it  would  be  very  good  for  the 
children.  It  is  quite  little,  a  village,  no 
people,  only  ruddy-faced  little  children 


THE  KAISERIN  143 

running  about.  I  know  it  would  be  just 
the  thing  for  Joachim  and  Sissy.  However, 
I  hope  to  get  the  two  little  ones  at  least  here 
after  Easter.  I  know  you  and  Herr  v.  G. 
will  do  all  to  make  the  boys  happy  ;  perhaps 
it  is  more  wise  for  me  to  have  complete 
rest.  But  I  know  you  understand  my 
feelings. 

'  The  Emperor  had  a  cold,  but  it  is  almost 
over ;  he  was  out  walking  again  to-day. 
I  hope  the  food  is  all  right  for  the  children, 
otherwise  do  send  down  or  tell  Herr  v.  G. 

"  Love  to  the  children.  I  wrote  to  the 
three  boys  to-day.  I  am  so  glad  you  stayed 
with  them,  especially  now,  as  I  cannot 
be  with  them. — Yours  sincerely, 

"VICTORIA,  I.R." 

Here  is  another,  written  a  week  or  so 
later,  also  from  the  Schloss  at  Homburg- 
vor-der-H6he  : 

"  April  8,  1898 

"  MY  DEAR  Miss  HOWARD, — Many  thanks 
for  several  letters.  You  know  how  glad 
I  am  to  get  all  particulars,  even  the 
smallest,  about  the  children.  Poor  little 
Oscar,  I  am  so  glad  his  cold  has  gone  off. 


144          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

He  always  suffers  so  patiently.  I  wish 
you  had  the  fine  weather  we  have  here. 
It  is  quite  like  summer ;  we  had  tea  out  on 
the  hills.  I  do  wish  the  children  were  here 
— I  can  hardly  enjoy  the  fine  days,  thinking 
how  much  good  it  would  do  them.  But 
the  Emperor  will  have  me  rest  and  keep 
quiet.  I  suppose  it  is  good,  but  sometimes 
a  trial  when  one  thinks  of  the  children. 

"  I  am  so  glad  you  are  with  the  boys  a  good 
deal.  About  the  nursery,  I  wrote  to  Herr 
v.  G.  and  also  to  Oscar.  But  it  seems  they 
are  all  under  the  impression  of  colds  in 
the  nursery  and  that  Oscar  got  his  there, 
although  it  seems  to  me  that  the  tour  to 
Tegel  was  more  a  place  for  getting  it.  I 
am  so  glad  to  have  my  two  eldest  boys  ; 
they  are  with  us,  the  Emperor  and  myself, 
or  with  me  all  day  long. 

"  Please  give  my  love  to  all  the  children, 
also  in  the  nursery,  and  tell  them  I  was  so 
glad  to  hear  the  dear  little  voices  at  the 
telephone.  I  know  you  do  not  mind 
giving  up  your  Easter  holidays  because  of 
the  children,  for  it  is  a  comfort  for  me  to 
know  you  are  with  the  boys. — Yours 
sincerely, 

"V.,  I.R." 


THE   KAISERIN  145 

I  kept  these  and  a  few^other  letters  for 
many  years  ;  they  are  before  me  as  I  write, 
and  I  have  faithfully  copied  every  word 
just  as  it  is  written. 

But  though  it  may  be  only  natural  for  a 
mother  to  love  her  children,  and  detractors 
of  the  German  Empress  may  possibly  seize 
on  my  description  of  her  mother  love  as 
but  a  poor  defence  of  her  character,  yet 
I  maintain  that  few  mothers — especially 
Royal  ones — have  shown  this  trait  in  so 
marked  a  degree.  She  was  not  blind 
withal  to  the  claims  of  others,  which  indeed, 
quite  apart  from  her  maternal  duties,  were 
sufficient  to  absorb  all  her  time  and  atten- 
tion. 

In  her  charities  she  was  extremely 
generous,  and  often  those  whose  allotted 
task  it  was  to  help  her  administer  them  had 
to  place  a  restraining  hand  on  her  muni- 
ficent ideas  of  giving  to  the  poor  and  needy. 

She  read  all  letters  addressed  to  her 
personally,  even  ah1  begging  letters, — at 
least  in  those  days, — and  answered  most 
of  them  herself.  It  was  of  course  im- 

10 


146          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

possible  for  her  to  personally  indite  a 
response  to  every  appeal  she  received, 
but  no  letter  was  addressed  to  her  without 
its  being  replied  to  either  by  herself  or  one 
of  her  secretaries — and  the  latter  were  not 
allowed  to  send  the  reply  on  their  own 
initiative  either. 

Among  her  most  treasured  rings,  she 
prizes  those  in  which  she  has  had  set  the 
first  teeth  of  each  of  her  children.  One  of 
these  rings  has  three  teeth — those  of  the 
eldest  boy,  the  Crown  Prince,  who  was 
considered  to  most  resemble  her  in  character 
— in  his  early  youth  at  any  rate.  Per- 
sonally, the  only  similarity  I  ever  saw 
between  them  was  his  timidity  and  his 
deference  to  his  father.  This,  however,  he 
lost  as  he  grew  older. 

Curiously  enough,  these  baby  teeth,  set 
in  rings,  had  the  appearance  of  small  pearls. 

Whenever  the  boys'  hair  was  cut — and 
the  coming  of  the  Court  hairdresser  was 
somewhat  of  an  event — the  clippings  from 
each  child's  hair  were  carefully  treasured 
by  their  mother.  She  did  not  keep  all 


THE  KAISERIN  147 

the  hair  that  came  off  each  boy  ;  she 
graciously  allowed  some  of  it  to  be  given 
to  other  worthy  recipients.  It  used  to  be 
put  into  envelopes,  duly  labelled,  and 
would  be  given  to  the  boys  themselves  ; 
who  would,  in  their  turn,  gracefully  confer 
gifts  of  their  hair  on  whomsoever  they 
thought  fit.  I  myself  was  judged  a  worthy 
recipient  of  these  hirsute  tokens  of  regard, 
which  I  have  kept  to  this  day. 

Of  course  I  was  warned  to  be  very  careful 
of  what  I  said  in  my  letters  home  about 
the  Princes,  as  such  extraordinary  reports 
got  about.  One  or  two  of  the  children 
were  supposed,  in  popular  parlance,  to  be 
deaf  and  dumb,  but  this  was  far  from 
being  the  case  ;  a  healthier  family  I  have 
seldom  met. 

Of  course  they  suffered  from  the  usual 
children's  ailments,  of  measles,  chicken-pox, 
and  the  like.  These  small  illnesses  were  not 
generally  made  public,  as  their  announce- 
ment would  cause  such  a  flood  of  letters, 
telegrams,  inquiries  of  all  kinds,  and,  later, 
congratulations  on  recovery,  as  would 


148          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

necessitate  the  employment  of  an  extra 
secretary  to  deal  with  them,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  amount  of  the  Kaiserin's  own  time 
which  they  took  up,  and  which  she  preferred 
to  spend  nursing  her  children  herself  as  far 
as  possible. 

Prince  Fritz  was  once  thrown  from  his 
horse,  and  got  his  foot  crushed,  being  laid 
up  for  three  weeks.  The  fiat  went  forth 
that  nothing  was  to  be  said  about  this 
in  the  Press,  but  nevertheless  an  account 
appeared  in  an  English  newspaper,  and  the 
Kaiserin  immediately  asked  me  whether  I 
had  mentioned  it  in  any  of  my  letters 
home.  I  was  glad  to  be  able  to  truthfully 
answer  in  the  negative. 

When  any  of  the  children  were  ill  they 
were  nursed  in  the  Palace,  and  she  invari- 
ably managed  to  find  time  to  be  with  them 
a  good  deal.  It  was  really  wonderful  how 
she  managed  to  fit  in  all  she  had  to  do, 
what  with  State  functions,  Court  cere- 
monies, visiting  hospitals  and  homes  for 
children ;  not  to  speak  of  church-going, 
which  occupied  a  great  portion  of  her  time. 


THE  KAISERIN  149 

She  was  a  great  advocate  of  Protestant- 
ism, and  although  she  has  been  attacked 
as  adhering  to  its  tenets  in  a  narrow  and 
unenlightened  manner,  to  my  mind  she 
seemed  to  look  on  other  creeds  and  forms 
of  Christianity  with  a  broad  and  kindly 
tolerance. 

There  was  a  certain  Pastor  Dryander, 
in  my  day  chaplain  to  the  Imperial  Family, 
and  who,  I  believe,  still  holds  the  same 
position.  Introduced  by  the  Countess  von 
Waldersee,  he  it  was  who  managed  to 
imbue  the  Empress  with  her  idea  of  keeping 
the  purity  of  Evangelicalism. 

I  shall  not  easily  forget  seeing  her  gather 
her  five  boys  round  her  as  she  told  them 
one  night  of  the  death  of  a  young  sailor 
friend  of  theirs,  reading  his  mother's  letter 
the  while. 

On  the  previous  Sunday  the  young 
sailor  had  listened  to  a  sermon  of  Pastor 
Dryander's,  of  which  the  text  was,  "  The 
sea  is  the  Lord's,  and  all  that  therein  is." 
I  saw  her  brush  away  a  tear  as  she  told 
her  boys  that  the  sea  had  taken  their 


i5o          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

young  friend,  to  yield  him  to  the  Lord 
when  she  gave  up  her  dead. 

The  young  Princes  usually  accompanied 
their  parents  to  church  to  hear  this  Pastor 
Dryander  and  other  notable  preachers.  I 
too  enjoyed  his  sermons,  but  it  was  really 
much  more  like  home  to  me  when  I  went  to 
the  English  church  and  heard  the  chaplain 
preach  in  my  own  tongue. 

One  morning  the  Kaiserin  asked  me  to 
drive  alone  to  some  particular  place  and 
fetch  back  one  of  the  Princes.  Unfortun- 
ately, I  could  not  exactly  remember  the 
German  name  she  said.  I  thought  she 
had  told  me  to  fetch  the  Prince  at  some 
place  called  Kuchen.  Entering  my  carriage, 
therefore,  the  only  order  I  could  give  the 
footman  was  "  Kuchen."  There  seemed  a 
certain  amount  of  hesitation  and  dis- 
cussion between  him  and  the  coachman ; 
but  finally  we  drove  off,  and  the  carriage 
came  to  a  standstill  before  a  cake-shop. 
Nothing  I  could  say  in  my  limited  German 
could  enlighten  the  coachman,  and  at 
last,  in  despair,  I  was  driven  back  to  the 


THE  KAISERIN  151 

Palace,  not  having  met  the  Prince,  and, 
what  was  worse,  with  a  semblance  of 
having  disobeyed  the  Imperial  command. 
Then  I  discovered  that  the  word  she  had 
said  was  "Kirche"  (church),  and  I  was 
very  annoyed  with  myself  for  not  having 
sooner  grasped  the  fact  that  they  would 
be  much  more  likely  to  have  gone  to  church 
than  to  a  confectioner's. 

The  Kaiserin  always  showed  great 
solicitude  for  the  feelings  of  others,  and 
was  most  sympathetic  to  nervousness — in 
fact,  to  suffering  of  any  kind.  I  remember 
one  day  a  poor  child  had  to  present  a 
bouquet  to  her  on  arrival  at  a  railway 
station.  It  was  a  bitterly  cold  day ;  the 
child  wore  a  thin  muslin  frock,  and  had 
probably  been  waiting,  expectant,  for 
hours,  getting  more  and  more  nervous  as 
the  arrival  of  the  Imperial  couple  ap- 
proached. Her  teeth  chattered  as  she 
presented  the  bouquet,  and  suddenly,  when 
the  Empress  gave  her  hand  to  be  kissed, 
the  unfortunate  girl  was  violently  sick  all 
over  it.  It  passed  in  a  moment ;  but  trie 


152  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

enormity  of  the  thing  she  had  done  over- 
came the  poor  child,  and  she  burst  out 
crying.  Then  the  Kaiserin's  great  woman- 
liness and  tenderness  came  out.  Gently 
she  patted  the  child's  head  and  comforted 
her,  saying  that  it  was  quite  all  right,  and 
it  did  not  matter  in  the  least.  The  little 
girl  finally  went  away  quite  delighted  with 
the  notice  taken  of  her.  I  must  say  that 
I  admired  the  Empress's  bearing  in  this 
somewhat  unpleasant  experience. 

On  one  occasion  I  recall  her  returning 
from  laying  a  foundation-stone,  which 
had  accidentally  been  let  down  on  her  toe, 
and  she  had  said  nothing  rather  than  get 
anyone  into  trouble — in  fact,  no  one  knew 
of  it  until  her  return  ;  but  I  believe  the 
injury  resulted  in  the  nail  coming  off. 

She  herself  had  no  easy  time,  the  eti- 
quette of  State  functions  compelling  her  to 
very  often  remain  standing  for  as  many  as 
five  hours  at  a  stretch. 

I  remember  once  confiding  to  her  how 
tired  this  constant  standing  made  me. 

"  One  has  to  be  specially  trained  for  it ; 


THE  KAISERIN  153 

it  takes  time,  but  it  comes.  Look  at  me, 
I  am  like  a  horse.  I  can  rest  better  stand- 
ing than  sitting,"  was  her  reply. 

As  I  think  I  have  mentioned  before,  she 
struck  me  as  rather  a  stickler  for  etiquette  ; 
she  seemed  to  think  it  necessary  to  uphold 
the  dignity  of  the  Court  on  every  occa- 
sion where  grown-ups  only  were  present, 
though  she  often  relaxed  it  when  her  boys 
flocked  round  her,  and  grown-ups  were 
few  and  far  between. 

Her  dresses  were  marvellous,  and  I 
used  to  amuse  myself  by  guessing  which 
delicate  confection  she  would  appear  in 
next. 

She  would  criticize  one's  own  clothes, 
too.  I  had  bought  a  very  expensive  hat, 
and  I  never  dared  to  wear  it  more  than 
once,  as  the  criticism  on  it  was  that  it  made 
me  look  too  young.  She  bore  in  mind 
that  I  was  often  alone  with  the  Princes' 
governors,  and  that  my  position  demanded 
a  dignity  which  youth  alone  could  not 
achieve.  Unluckily,  I  was  taken  for  twenty 
one  day — indeed,  I  was  but  little  more — 


154          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

and  was  ordered  to  wear  more  matronly 
hats  in  consequence. 

She  was  very  severe  sometimes  over 
clothes.  Once,  in  Bavaria,  I  had  fairly 
high  heels  to  my  shoes,  and  she  was  really 
disagreeable  over  them,  and  said  she  had 
never  heard  of  such  a  thing  as  coming  to 
a  mountain  resort  without  flat  heels.  Then 
I  had  no  mackintosh — that,  too,  was  a 
crime. 

I  have  rarely  seen  her  so  upset  as  on  the 
occasion  when  moths  got  into  her  furs. 
She  was  really  annoyed,  and  severely 
blamed  the  carelessness  of  the  responsible 
person. 

They  certainly  were  beautiful  furs,  and 
had  they  been  mine  I  should  have  been 
just  as  cross  to  have  had  them  spoilt — in 
fact  more  so,  as  not  being  an  Empress 
I  should  never  have  had  a  chance  of  re- 
placing them. 

An  energetic  and  active  woman,  she 
would  be  in  the  saddle  for  hours  at  a  time, 
and  then  dance  in  the  evening. 

When    we    had    that    famous    informal 


THE  KAISERIN  155 

birthday  ball  for  Prince  Au-Wi,  she  danced 
a  lot,  and  I  had  a  waltz  with  her  myself ; 
after  which  we  got  on  the  subject  of  bows 
and  curtsies,  and  she  teased  me  about 
mine  being  always  crooked.  She  started 
showing  me  then  and  there  how  to  do  it, 
and  the  whole  company  began  bowing 
and  scraping,  herself  included. 

Why  I  never  adopted  the  stately  English 
curtsy  I  do  not  know,  but  from  the  very 
start  I  invariably  copied  the  German 
ladies-in-waiting.  Their  manner  of  doing 
it  was  very  different  from  a  curtsy,  and 
the  Empress  showed  me  an  exercise  which 
I  must  practise  every  morning  in  order  to 
overcome  my  stiffness  and  my  crookedness, 
and  so  make  my  bow  a  thing  of  grace  and 
beauty. 

I  am  sure  I  never  achieved  this,  nor 
I  think  did  many  of  the  others,  from 
what  I  saw  ;  but  I  religiously  practised 
my  exercise  every  morning,  as  the  Kaiserin 
had  taken  the  trouble  to  teach  me  it 
herself. 

This   personal   note   was  strongly  char- 


156          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

acteristic.  It  was  the  same  with  every- 
body and  everything ;  she  must  have  been 
a  believer  in  the  maxim,  "  If  you  want  a 
thing  well  done,  do  it  yourself." 

It  was  not  that  she  did  not  trust  other 
people ;  I  think  she  was  partly  inspired 
by  kindliness,  partly  by  the  fact  that  if 
she  wanted  anything  done,  by  personally 
supervising  it  she  knew  just  how  it  was 
done. 

In  my  early  days  at  the  Court  I  was,  of 
course,  obliged  to  study  German,  as  my 
knowledge  of  that  language  was  very 
meagre  when  I  arrived  ;  I  was  fortunate 
in  getting  the  help  of  a  most  delightful 
teacher,  whose  people  were  formerly  in  the 
Court.  This  lady  and  her  sister,  an 
invalid,  lived  together  in  very  straitened 
circumstances.  They  did  all  their  own 
housework,  and  managed  to  earn  a  small 
amount  by  constant  application  to  needle- 
work. The  Empress  took  a  great  interest 
in  their  case,  and  whenever  there  was  need 
she  supplied  little  dainties  for  the  invalid. 
On  one  occasion  when  I  was  given  twenty 


THE  KAISERIN  157 

marks  from  the  Empress  for  some  little 
piece  of  needlework  done  by  my  lady 
teacher  for  Her  Majesty,  the  sisters  were 
beside  themselves  with  joy  and  excitement. 

Her  Majesty  was  also  much  interested  in 
a  Home  for  girls  of  bad  character,  which 
existed  near  Potsdam.  The  house  had 
been  taken  by  a  lady  who  had  meant  to 
start  with  only  one  or  two  girls,  but 
gradually  the  number  increased  to  twenty- 
four,  as  they  could  not  refuse  any  girl  ad- 
mittance. The  Empress  had  given  sheets, 
pillows,  and  chemises,  to  take  with  us  as 
gifts — most  necessary  articles,  as  the  girls 
possessed  no  underclothes,  and  but  few 
toilet  necessities. 

The  Sister  of  the  Home  told  of  its 
utter  poverty ;  I  tasted  the  soup  which 
comprised  their  dinner.  We  went  into 
the  room  where  they  were  studying ;  it  was 
piteous  to  see  the  look  of  sadness  on  their 
faces.  The  little  Sister  was  very  bright 
and  hopeful  over  it  all,  saying,  "  We  must 
never  consider  a  soul  lost." 

The  Kaiserin  took  a  very  real  interest  in 


158          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

her  charities,  and  as  the  consort  of  a  despotic 
monarch  she  had  much  more  say  in  their 
management  than  would  be  possible  with 
most  Royalties.  Even  in  those  days  half 
her  time  was  spent  visiting  hospitals, 
especially  children's,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
her  whole  time  is  spent  that  way  now, 
though  she  probably  has  to  forgo  children's 
beds  of  suffering  for  those  of  the  Father- 
land's warriors,  broken  in  the  terrible 
carnage  of  modern  warfare. 

Though  in  many  ways  I  found  her  hard, 
she  was  really  tender-hearted  and  extremely 
sympathetic  towards  suffering.  I  can 
imagine  her  torn  with  distress  at  Europe's 
strife  and  agony  to-day,  and,  blame 
Germany  though  one  may,  I  for  one 
cannot  forget  that  this  war  was  none  of 
the  Empress's  own  making. 


CHAPTER  VII 
INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE 

I  HAVE   already   mentioned   the   great 
part  played  by  birthdays  in  the  life 
of  the  Court,  but  those  of  the  Imperial 
couple  and  their  children  were  not  by  any 
means  all  that  were  kept.     The  Germans 
have  a  tremendous  love  of   anniversaries, 
and   it    is    shown    by   their    having    tried 
to  plan  a  great  victory  to  take  place  on 
September  2,  1914,  which  they  could  com- 
memorate as  a  second  Sedan. 

Again  they  made  desperate  endeavours 
all  along  their  front  to  do  something  worthy 
of  January  27,  1915,  the  Kaiser's  fifty- 
sixth  birthday.  Both  efforts,  fortunately 
for  the  Allies,  met  with  no  success. 

At  the  Court  in  those  days  it  was  always 
someone's  birthday  or  someone's  death- 
day,  and  both  had  to  be  celebrated  with 

159 


160          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

all  due  jollity  or  solemnity,  as  the  occasion 
might  require.  It  was  certainly  one  way 
of  learning  German  history  and  the  dates 
on  which  the  various  kings  and  emperors 
were  born  and  died.  Mercifully,  however, 
they  did  not  keep  the  death-days  (rather 
lugubrious  events)  more  than  for  about 
three  generations  back,  unless  the  noble 
dead  thus  honoured  had  been  very  great 
heroes. 

But  to  me,  a  foreigner,  it  was  no  small 
difficulty  to  keep  count  of  all  these  numerous 
anniversaries,  and  during  my  early  days 
at  the  Court,  I  would  always  be  behindhand 
with  my  preparations  and  gifts  of  bouquets 
and  flowers  to  the  various  people  concerned 
as  regards  the  birthdays,  or  the  wreaths 
to  place  round  the  statues  on  the  death- 
days. 

Christmas  was,  of  course,  the  greatest 
festive  occasion  of  the  year,  involving 
months  of  preparation,  so  much  so  that 
I  must  give  a  whole  chapter  to  its  descrip- 
tion. 

Palm  Sunday,  just  a  week  before  Easter 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE     161 

Day,  was  by  no  means  forgotten,  and  the 
Princes  and  ladies  would  give  me  sprigs 
of  palm,  which  compliment  I  would  have 
to  return.  This  custom  they  kept  up  for 
years  after  I  left  Germany,  posting  me  the 
sprigs. 

Easter,  like  Christmas,  received  far  more 
observance  than  it  did  in  England.  It  was 
the  occasion  of  a  great  exchange  of  Easter 
cards,  and  I  received  many,  not  only  from 
the  Royal  Family,  but  from  all  the  ladies 
and  gentlemen  of  the  Court,  which  likewise 
I  had  to  return.  An  interesting  custom  was 
the  presentation  by  the  Kaiserin  to  each 
of  her  ladies-in-waiting  of  an  egg  made  of 
Berlin  china-ware.  These  eggs  had  a  little 
cork  stopper  at  one  end,  and  were  intended 
to  be  used  as  scent  bottles.  I  believe  the 
size  of  the  eggs  was  in  proportion  to  the 
status  of  the  recipient,  and  I  noticed  that 
some  of  the  ladies-in-waiting  had  bigger 
eggs  than  mine,  and  I  also  observed  that 
one  or  two  had  them  rather  smaller  than 
my  own.  I  was  told  that  the  Kaiserin 
had  the  monopoly  of  the  manufacture  of 


i62  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

these  china  eggs  throughout  Germany. 
In  later  years,  during  my  travels  about 
the  world,  I  discovered  that,  though  of 
little  intrinsic  value,  they  were  highly 
prized  by  all  Germans,  and  a  merchant 
offered  me  a  very  high  price  if  I  would  part 
with  mine. 

The  great  event  of  Easter  Sunday  was 
the  children's  egg  hunt,  instituted  by  the 
old  Grand  Duchess  of  Baden,  and  held  in 
the  grounds  of  Bellevue  Palace.  Chocolate 
eggs,  sugar  eggs,  little  animals  stuffed  full 
of  sweets  were  hidden  under  the  various 
bushes  and  trees,  and  there  would  be  a 
huge  gathering  of  children  belonging  to  the 
numerous  members  of  the  Royal  Family. 
Then  there  would  be  an  eager  scramble  and 
a  vigorous  hunt  for  the  eggs,  the  children 
generally  emerging  rather  dirty  and  dis- 
hevelled after  groping  about  among  the 
bushes  in  the  enthusiasm  of  their  search. 

Speaking  of  the  intricacies  of  Court  life, 
my  greatest  bugbear  from  beginning  to  end 
was  that  of  dress.  My  predecessor  had  not 
taken  such  an  active  part  in  the  general 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE     163 

life  of  the  Court  as  I  was  obliged  to  do, 
the  children  being  younger  in  her  day,  and 
relegated  more  to  the  nursery.  Therefore 
she  had  not  prepared  me  for  the  endless 
clothes  I  needed. 

My  letters  home  contained  many  plaintive 
appeals  to  my  mother  and  sisters  to  go 
and  buy  me  clothes  in  the  London  shops 
and  to  send  them  out  at  once.  I  spent 
much  money  on  telegrams  to  the  same 
effect,  when  the  urgency  of  the  moment 
required  ;  but  try  as  I  would,  I  never 
seemed  to  have  an  appropriate  dress  for 
the  occasion. 

It  was  considered  etiquette  to  wear  a 
new  silk  frock  on  each  Royal  birthday. 
Being  possessed  of  no  private  means,  I 
found  it  impossible  to  keep  to  this  rule, 
and  did  not  attempt  to  do  so.  No  one  took 
any  notice  of  it,  and  all  the  ladies  were 
very  kind  to  me  about  such  matters,  so  I 
thought  it  was  all  right. 

Unfortunately,  however,  the  dress  I 
usually  wore  for  these  special  occasions  was 
of  rather  a  bright  and  noticeable  colour. 


1 64          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

I  wore  it  on  one  of  the  Kaiser's  birthdays 
(not  the  time  I  was  first  presented  to  him), 
and  I  did  not  think  it  mattered  very 
much  my  not  having  a  new  one  for  this 
particular  birthday,  as  I  reasoned  to  myself 
there  would  be  such  a  crowd  no  one  would 
notice  me. 

"  Papa  calls  that  dress  '  Miss  Howard's 
uniform,'  '  said  Prince  Adalbert  laugh- 
ingly, just  as  I  had  donned  it  for  luncheon 
and  the  reception. 

I  never  discovered  whether  there  was 
any  fo  ndation  for  this  remark,  or  whether 
he  said  it  simply  to  tease  me.  It  was 
decidedly  a  thunderbolt  in  any  case,  and  I 
resolved  to  try  and  have  more  dresses  for 
the  future.  The  ladies  were  very  good 
and  helped  me,  my  sisters  shopped  for  me 
in  London  and  sent  me  things,  and  though 
I  had  never  done  any  dressmaking  in  my 
life  before,  I  began  to  work  hard  at  altering 
and  doing  up  my  frocks,  the  result  being 
that  I  was  much  better  turned  out. 

I  think  it  really  helped  me  in  my  work. 
One  of  the  ladies  assured  me  that  it  had 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE     165 

been  a  great  lift  to  me,  and  she  declared 
that  one  felt  happier  when  well  dressed. 
On  the  whole  I  think  she  was  right  ! 

The  correct  wearing  of  jewels,  too,  was 
another  thing  I  had  to  learn.  One  had 
always  to  wear  a  brooch  at  luncheon,  and  a 
pendant  or  a  necklace  at  dinner  if  Royalty 
were  present  at  the  meal.  One  of  the 
ladies  was  sent  out  of  the  room  by  the 
Mistress  of  the  Robes  just  before  dinner, 
her  neck  being  bare,  having  forgotten  to 
put  on  any  jewellery,  a  terrible  crime. 

Brought  up  as  I  was,  in  unostentatious 
sty'e,  and  taught  that  in  young  girls 
'  beauty  unadorned  is  beauty  adorned  the 
most,"  this  compulsory  wearing  of  jewels 
seemed  to  me  rather  unnecessary,  especially 
when  one  had  not  many  to  choose  from. 

I  shall  never  forget  a  beautiful  string  of 
pearls,  left  to  the  Kaiserin  by  the  Empress 
Augusta  (wife  of  William  I),  which  I  par- 
ticularly admired.  One  day  I  remarked 
to  the  Princes  that  they  looked  so  velvety 
and  soft  that  I  should  like  to  touch  them. 
My  wish  was  granted  in  quite  an  unexpected 


1 66          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

way,  and,  to  me,  in  a  horrifying  manner. 
I  happened  to  leave  my  sitting-room  for  a 
few  moments,  and,  when  I  returned,  I 
found  these  beautiful  pearls  twined  round 
the  back  of  a  chair.  It  was  enough  for  the 
Princes  that  I  had  expressed  the  wish  to 
touch  them  ;  they  had  asked  their  mother 
to  let  them  bring  them  to  me,  so  they  said. 
But  I  was  pretty  certain  that  they  were 
not  intended  to  pay  this  visit,  and  I  very 
quickly  returned  them.  In  my  agitation 
I  forgot  to  notice  whether  they  were  like 
velvet  to  the  touch  or  not  !  A  very  great 
contrast  were  these  beautiful  pearls  to  those 
I  wore  at  the  first  Court  ball  to  which  I 
was  invited. 

Some  officer  came  up  to  me  and  asked  if 
the  pearls  I  was  wearing  were  family  ones. 
I  told  him  they  were  not,  but  that  they 
were  merely  Venetian  pearls.  I  thought 
no  more  of  his  question,  but,  when  another 
invitation  card  to  some  Court  function  was 
presented  to  me,  I  found  in  the  corner  a 
notice  to  this  effect :  "  Pearls  only  are  to 
be  worn,  and  those  must  be  real  ones." 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE    167 

Needless  to  say,  I  felt  very  crushed.  But 
this  was  merely  a  sample  of  what  went  on 
daily. 

One's  whole  life  was  ordered,  down  to  the 
smallest  detail  even  of  one's  person.  Had  I 
not  been  so  young  at  the  time,  I  do  not  think 
I  could  have  brooked  this  interference 
with  what  was,  after  all,  no  affair  of  out- 
siders. But  being  wishful  to  please,  and 
in  addition  being  anxious  to  "do  in  Rome 
as  Rome  does,"  I  took  in  good  part  these 
commands  as  to  whether  I  should  or  should 
not  wear  a  pearl  necklace,  or  have  flat 
or  high- heeled  shoes — much  though  I  in- 
wardly resented  the  tone  in  which  they 
were  given. 

Once  I  got  a  sudden  invitation  to  dinner. 
The  Grand  Duchess  of  Baden  and  several 
other  Royalties  were  invited.  The  invita- 
tion card  gave  orders  for  "  high  evening 
dress,"  and  I  had  not  one  fit  to  wear  at  the 
moment.  One  of  the  ladies-in-waiting, 
Fraulein  von  Gersdorff,  very  kindly  wrote 
to  the  Kaiserin  and  asked  if  I  might  be 
excused.  I  happened  accidentally  to  run 


168          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

across  Her  Majesty  myself,  and  took 
courage  to  tell  her  my  difficulty.  She,  with 
her  hundreds  of  frocks  all  ready  to  wear, 
was  quite  unable  to  grasp  it,  and  said  I  was 
to  come  and  wear  what  I  could.  So  in 
spite  of  its  being  Sunday,  I  had  to  call  up 
my  poor  maid,  and  she  and  I  slaved  to- 
gether in  feverish  haste  to  convert  an  old 
evening  dress  into  the  high  toilette  required. 

During  the  time  I  was  in  the  German 
Court  the  Kaiserin's  ladies  consisted  of : 
first,  the  Mistress  of  the  Robes  (the 
Countess  Brockdorff,  whom  I  have  men- 
tioned before),  then  three  or  four  ladies-in- 
waiting,  besides  myself  and  the  Mistress  of 
the  Bedchamber.  I  was  a  sort  of  non- 
descript person,  and  although  my  official 
status  was  that  of  English  governess  to  the 
Princes,  I  often  came  in  for  the  duties  of 
the  ordinary  ladies.  To  be  fair,  I  must 
say  I  often  came  in  for  their  privileges 
also,  but  my  work  being  of  such  an  "  in- 
between  "  nature,  I  think  I  put  in  the  most 
strenuous  time  of  them  all  ! 

I   believe  now    there    are    as  many  as 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE     169 

fifteen  "  Dames  du  Palais,"  or  at  least  there 
were  before  the  war.  This  is  quite  a 
contrast  to  the  household  of  the  old  Em- 
press Augusta,  who  had  only  a  Mistress 
of  the  Robes  and  two  Dames  du  Palais. 

These  ladies  were  chosen  from  the 
greatest  and  noblest  families  in  the  land, 
and  were  generally  married  women  or 
widows.  They  seemed  to  me  to  spend 
their  lives  in  a  study  of  precedence,  in 
devotion  to  the  art  of  dress,  and  to  the 
various  performances  of  their  duties.  They 
were  religious-minded,  good  women,  well 
educated  and  gently  nurtured,  very  well 
informed  so  far  as  concerned  their  Sovereign 
and  his  entourage,  and  necessarily  blind  to 
many  of  the  broader  interests  of  life. 

I  cannot  deny  that  one  and  all  were 
exceedingly  kind  to  me.  Had  it  not  been 
for  them  I  should  never  have  been  able 
to  grope  my  way  through  the  intricate 
maze  which  the  routine  of  the  Court  pre- 
sented to  me,  ignorant  as  I  was  of  its 
language,  etiquette,  and  customs. 

One    personage    I    must   not    forget    to 


1 70          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

mention  is  the  Court  dancing  mistress, 
Frau  Wandel.  I  remember  seeing  her 
give  an  illustrated  lesson  to  the  Princes  as 
to  how  to  sit  at  table,  hand  dishes,  lift  a 
chair,  and  so  on.  One  of  the  governors 
was  present  at  the  time,  and  I  was  greatly 
amused  to  see  how  he  had  benefited  by 
the  lesson  when  on  the  following  day  he 
had  occasion  to  hand  me  a  chair. 

This  dancing  mistress  was  a  most  auto- 
cratic dame.  At  Court  balls  she  ruled 
the  dancing  with  a  rod  of  iron.  With 
her  "  it  was  a  crime  to  be  old,"  and  her 
agility  surpassed  that  of  the  youngest 
debutante. 

The  phrase  "  Court  secrets  "  has  become 
a  byword.  I  had  expected  that  I  should  be 
called  upon  to  keep  many,  but  in  this  I 
was  disappointed.  I  think,  looking  back 
on  it  now,  this  was  partly  due  to  my  youth 
and  to  my  want  of  perception.  It  is  also 
possible  that  they  may  have  been  very 
careful  as  to  what  they  said  before  me. 
I  was  certainly  very  careful  as  to  what  I  said 
before  them  :  I  had  proof  enough  and  to 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE     171 

spare  of  the  fact  that  one  breath  of  distrust 
or  suspicion,  be  it  true  or  false,  meant 
dropping  out  of  favour,  if  not  that  far  more 
terrible  blow  —  compulsory  resignation. 
Little  things  I  said  in  my  letters  to  friends 
in  England — careful  though  I  was — would 
get  repeated  and  distorted  in  such  a 
manner  that  when  they  eventually  got 
back  to  me  in  Germany  I  would  listen  to 
them  in  horror,  and  wonder  how  on  earth 
people  could  invent  such  tales. 

Newspaper  paragraphs,  too,  would  en- 
large upon  the  Princes'  English  governess — 
my  unfortunate  self — and  it  was  only  too 
evident  that  the  German  public  thought 
that  their  Princes'  upbringing,  what  with 
an  English  nurse  and  then  an  English 
governess,  was  rather  too  pro-British. 

I  sometimes  called  at  the  British  Em- 
bassy— the  Ambassador  then  being  Sir 
Frank  Lascelles — and  this  I  much  en- 
joyed; but  when  I  had  to  go  calling  on 
the  ladies  of  other  notable  people  by  the 
Kaiserin's  command,  it  did  not  appeal  to 
me  so  much. 


POTSDAM  PRINCES 

I  was  amused,  though,  to  note  the 
deference  paid  to  me.  No  sooner  did  I 
reach  the  entrance  than  the  doors  were 
flung  open  wide  without  waiting  for  me 
to  ring,  and  rigid  ceremonial  attended  my 
call  throughout. 

During  my  first  few  months  at  the 
Court  I  lived  in  deadly  terror  of  committing 
a  breach  of  etiquette.  It  seemed  to  me 
I  was  always  doing  something  I  ought  not 
to  do,  or  leaving  something  undone  which 
I  ought  to  do,  or  else  being  entirely  at  a 
loss  as  to  what  I  should  do.  It  did  not 
seem  safe  to  copy  the  ladies  in  everything. 
It  was  like  an  army — each  one  had  her 
particular  position  assigned  to  her,  being 
entitled  to  give  or  receive  so  much  honour. 
There  were  some  ladies  with  whom  one  had 
to  take  the  initiative  and  go  up  and  bow  to 
them,  and  there  were  others  with  whom 
one  had  to  wait  until  they  kindly  greeted 
one's  humble  self.  My  bow  to  visiting 
Princesses  had  to  be  a  very  different  one 
and  much  more  elaborate  than  that  to 
their  ladies,  and,  owing  to  my  short- 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE     173 

sightedness,  I  could  not  tell  one  from  the 
other  !  It  was  the  same  with  the  various 
visiting  Princes ;  I  could  not  tell  them 
from  their  gentlemen.  They  all  wore  uni- 
form, and  to  me  they  looked  alike ;  fortu- 
nately the  gentlemen-in-waiting  had  to  come 
up  to  me  first ;  which  fact,  coupled  with 
the  depth  of  their  bow,  told  me  whether 
I  knew  them  or  not,  and  also  whether  they 
were  persons  great  or  small.  This  they 
did  in  the  true  military  manner  beloved 
of  Germans,  clicking  their  heels,  saluting, 
bowing,  and  at  the  same  time  bending  low 
over  one's  hand,  which  somehow  always 
made  me  want  to  laugh.  The  Countess 
Brockdorff,  a  descendant  of  Humboldt, 
made  an  ideal  Mistress  of  the  Robes.  She 
was  an  exceedingly  handsome  woman,  and 
carried  herself  remarkably  well.  At  all 
evening  official  entertainments  she  wore  a 
black  mantilla  veil  on  her  head  falling 
behind,  as  a  widow.  Her  diamonds  were 
very  fine  ones. 

Hers  was  a  most  difficult  life.     Every- 
one brought  their  difficulties  to  her,  and 


174          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

she  needed  the  wisdom  of  Solomon  on 
many  occasions.  She  had  the  assuring 
manner  that  induces  one  to  bare  every- 
thing openly  to  her,  knowing  it  will  go  no 
further.  She  loved  to  help  one,  and  took 
especial  pains  to  hide  any  mistakes,  and 
above  all  to  avoid  a  person  looking  foolish. 
I  remember  her  sending  me  out  of  the 
room  with  an  excuse  to  fetch  something 
for  her  when  Their  Majesties  were  present, 
as  a  visitor  of  very  ludicrous  appearance 
so  tickled  me  that  she  feared  I  might  dis- 
grace myself.  She  would  sometimes  take 
me  out  driving  if  she  thought  I  was  at  all 
low-spirited.  She  was  one  of  the  genuinely 
beloved  ones  in  the  Court. 

In  Germany  etiquette  is  somewhat  re- 
versed. Not  only  do  gentlemen  first 
recognize  ladies,  but  those  of  a  lower 
social  status  have  to  advance  and  ask 
to  be  presented  or  introduced  to  those 
in  a  higher  position. 

I  was  discussing  these  differences  of 
custom  with  a  British  officer  who  had 
spent  some  time  in  Germany,  and  he 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE     175 

related  his  experience  of  their  social 
customs  in  these  words  : 

'  I  was  never  invited  to  the  German 
Court.  Unlike  you,  I  did  not  move  in 
such  high  circles  !  But  on  the  first  occa- 
sion I  was  present  at  a  big  reception,  an 
officer  came  up  and  shouted  something 
at  me,  saluting  as  he  did  so.  Somewhat 
startled,  I  begged  his  pardon.  He  shouted 
it  again  in  a  snappy  military  voice,  and 
then  it  dawned  on  me  that  it  was  his  name, 
whereat  I  bowed  and  shouted  my  own 
name  back,  and  everybody  was  satisfied. 
It  is  apparently  one  of  their  customs  to 
introduce  themselves  all  round  at  an 
assembly,  so  that  everybody  may  know  one 
another  after  the  first  few  minutes.  It 
is  not  a  bad  plan  either,  and  it  saves  the 
hostess  a  whole  lot  of  trouble." 

At  dinner  parties  the  ladies  do  not  leave 
the  gentlemen  alone  to  take  their  wine ;  in 
fact,  the  Kaiserin  and  her  ladies  were  rather 
shocked  at  this  custom  in  England.  They 
seemed  to  imagine  that  we  left  the  gentle- 
men behind  to  get  drunk,  though  I  did 


1 76          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

my  best  to  politely  intimate  to  them  that 
this  was  not  the  case. 

Among  Royalties  an  exchange  of  calls 
must  always  be  made  within  an  hour  or 
two.  A  Royal  letter  demands  an  im- 
mediate reply,  and  the  first  Royal  invitation 
extended  to  a  lady-in-waiting  necessitates 
her  calling  immediately  on  all  the  Court 
ladies. 

I  have  mentioned  previously  my  being 
commanded  to  wear  lorgnettes  on  State 
occasions,  in  order  that  I  might  not  again 
commit  the  enormity  of  not  recognizing 
His  Majesty,  and  the  Kaiserin  also  allowed 
me  to  look  at  her  through  glass,  but  she 
could  not  give  me  power  to  do  so  to  all 
these  Princes  and  Princesses  ;  there  would 
have  had  to  be  a  public  declaration  each 
time.  Such  were  the  formalities  one  had 
to  comply  with. 

Again,  they  were  constantly  asking  me 
who  Lord  So-and-so  was,  and  unless  I 
happened  to  know  the  peer  in  question, 
I  was  not  able  to  answer  off-hand,  and 
in  fact  at  first  I  was  not  able  to  answer 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE    177 

at  all,  having  no  book  by  me  in  which  to 
look  it  up.  I  sent  to  England  for  a  handy 
volume  of  reference,  and  after  its  arrival 
I  was  able  to  give  more  or  less  intelligent 
answers  to  the  various  questions  put  to  me 
on  similar  subjects. 

To  say  that  I  was  horribly  home-sick  at 
times  is  to  draw  it  mildly.  I  longed  for 
the  free-and-easy  life  of  my  English  home, 
and  though  I  knew  I  had  been  very  lucky 
to  get  this  appointment  at  the  German 
Court,  yet  I  sometimes  felt  that  I  simply 
could  not  bear  it  any  longer. 

Apart  from  the  intricacies  of  precedence, 
and  the  rigid  ceremonial  which  enveloped 
one's  whole  life,  one  was  so  restricted  it 
almost  seemed  like  living  in  a  prison.  I 
was  only  allowed  the  use  of  a  carriage  when 
"  in  service,"  and  was  not  permitted  to  enter 
an  omnibus,  so  I  could  not  get  about. 
Walking  alone  was  too  uncomfortable  in 
Berlin  and  also  in  Potsdam.  My  favourite 
walk  in  the  former  place  was  down  Unter- 
den-Linden,  as  the  shops  were  too  fascin- 
ating for  words,  but  I  did  not  dare  to  go 

12 


i;8          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

very  often,  as  I  would  meet  so  many 
officers  that  I  knew,  and  it  much  em- 
barrassed me  to  be  so  constantly  saluted. 
I  seemed  to  be  kept  under  lock  and  key, 
and  often  did  I  long  for  a  carriage  for  my 
own  use,  as  was  the  privilege  of  some  of 
the  Court  ladies. 

As  in  time  I  mastered  the  etiquette  of 
the  Court  I  began  to  find  my  sense  of 
humour  a  saving  grace,  though  rather 
difficult  to  stifle ;  especially  when  the 
various  people  I  met  at  dinner  would  air 
their  English  for  my  benefit,  or  rather 
for  their  own,  as  they  were  generally  glad 
to  get  some  practice  in  conversation. 

I  remember  one  celebrated  General 
(though  for  the  moment  I  cannot  recall 
his  name)  who  was  talking  about  the  future 
of  Turkey. 

"  We  Germans  are  trying  hard  to  do 
something  for  the  poor  Turkeys,"  he  said 
seriously ;  and  being  in  the  middle  of  a 
mouthful  of  soup  as  he  said  it,  I  only  just 
saved  myself  from  choking  and  spluttering 
at  his  remark,  putting  down  my  spoon 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE     179 

and  apparently  giving  way  to  a  cough. 
Had  the  Kaiser  been  near,  his  stern  eye 
would  have  been  upon  me. 

Another  time,  a  lady  was  speaking  of 
her  visit  to  London,  and  of  how  much  she 
enjoyed  her  drive  in  a  flea — meaning,  of 
course,  a  fly. 

On  another  occasion,  some  vegetarian 
crank  was  trying  to  persuade  me  as  to  the 
benefits  accruing  to  his  particular  choice  of 
diet. 

u  I  never  eat  flesh  willingly,"  he  said. 
I  sympathized  with  his  misnomer  of  the 
word  "meat,"  the  German  for  it  being 
"  fleisch." 

In  these  and  other  little  instances  I  felt 
I  got  my  own  back  for  the  mistakes  I  made 
in  German  ;  but  I  had  to  enjoy  them 
silently,  suppressing  my  laughter  as  best 
I  could,  for  to  give  way  to  it  would  have 
been  a  terrible  crime.  Sometimes  I  even 
poked  pins  into  myself  to  enable  me  to 
keep  a  straight  face. 

This  reminds  me  of  an  incident  in  which 
it  was  most  difficult  to  restrain  my  laughter. 


i8o          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

Apparently  it  was  a  general  practice, 
when  officers  of  certain  regiments  were 
given  their  Company,  for  them  to  be 
invited  to  lunch  with  Their  Majesties. 
On  one  such  occasion,  the  officer  in  question 
must  have  been  quite  ignorant  of  Court 
ways.  He  was  rather  late  in  entering 
the  ante-room,  in  itself  most  incorrect. 
The  Empress  followed  almost  immediately 
(the  Kaiser  being  absent  that  day).  The 
Captain  appeared  to  believe  it  his  duty 
not  only  to  salute  the  Empress,  but  every- 
one in  the  room  as  well.  I  can  see  him 
now,  spinning  like  a  teetotum,  clicking 
his  heels  and  going  round  the  circle, 
ceaselessly  saluting  everyone  in  turn. 

"  Mamma,  what  is  that  funny  man 
doing  ?  "  said  the  little  Princess,  adding 
her  quota  of  embarrassment  to  the  situation. 
Then  she  tried  to  copy  him,  and  following 
behind,  did  everything  she  saw  him  do. 
This  so  amused  the  Chamberlain  that 
even  he  was  unable  to  give  a  hint  to  stop 
the  officer.  Someone  told  me  afterwards 
that  it  had  been  a  practical  joke  played 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE     181 

on  this  wretched  Captain.  A  more  unkind 
and  humiliating  one  it  would  have  been 
difficult  to  think  of. 

Court  mourning,  too,  was  another  trial. 
One  day,  when  dressed  for  luncheon  and 
going  downstairs,  I  met  the  Mistress  of 
the  Robes,  who  at  once  asked  me  why  I 
was  not  in  mourning.  Had  I  not  heard 
of  the  death  of ?  (mentioning  some  per- 
sonage whose  name  I  do  not  now  recall). 

On  my  replying  in  the  negative,  she  told 
me  to  run  upstairs  and  change  my  dress. 
I  literally  had  only  two  minutes  to  do  this 
in.  Flinging  off  my  frock,  I  seized  a  black 
dress  and  got  into  it  as  best  I  could,  rushed 
downstairs  again,  and  reached  the  waiting- 
room,  one  of  the  lackeys  trying  to  stop 
me  on  the  way.  He  said  something  or 
other,  but  I  was  in  far  too  much  of  a  hurry 
to  listen  to  him  then.  I  found  I  was  just 
in  time. 

"  Are  you  mad  ?  "  said  one  of  the  ladies, 
pointing  to  the  hand  which  I  thought  held  a 
fan. 

I  looked  at  my  right  hand,  and  to  my 


182  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

consternation,  found  that  I  was  holding 
not  my  fan,  but  my  curling-tongs,  which  I 
must  have  picked  up  in  the  agitated  frenzy 
of  changing  my  costume.  Was  ever  any- 
thing so  quickly  hidden  out  of  sight,  I 
wonder  ? 

Mercifully  no  one  else  had  seen  it,  as  I 
was  standing  just  at  the  door  of  the  room, 
which  I  had  only  just  entered;  but  I  had 
to  go  in  to  luncheon  without  a  fan  that 
day,  a  terrible  solecism  which  made  me 
very  uncomfortable,  and  which  I  hoped  no 
one  would  notice.  My  curling-tongs  I  hid 
under  my  serviette  on  my  lap,  and,  as  I  rose 
from  the  table,  I  hid  them  between  the  folds 
of  my  gown,  escaping  as  quickly  as  I  could 
to  return  them  to  their  proper  place  on  my 
dressing-table. 

I  have  mentioned  the  Kaiserin's  frank 
criticism  to  me  of  my  clothes,  and  her  sons 
were  not  behind  her  in  this. 

One  morning  I  was  called  at  6.30  a.m. 
instead  of  6  a.m.  to  see  Their  Majesties  off 
to  Berlin.  Being  late,  I  had  to  make  a 
hurried  toilette;  but  I  scrambled  through 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE     183 

and  gave  a  hasty  look  at  myself  in  the  glass, 
and  saw  nothing  amiss.  Picture  my  dis- 
may when  I  got  downstairs,  and  Prince 
Adalbert  said  : 

f<  Miss  Howard,  your  neck  does  look  so 
funny  ;  it  is  all  unhooked  in  front,  and 
you  have  got  no  brooch  on." 

I  had  gone  down  without  a  collar,  and 
blame  my  maid  though  I  did,  for  letting 
me  appear  thus  half-dressed,  I  could  not 
but  feel  that  it  was  somewhat  my  own 
fault  as  well. 

When  this  criticism  of  my  clothes  went 
on,  all  the  ladies  joining  in,  I  longed  to 
retaliate  by  telling  them  that  their  lingerie 
showed  little  proof  of  taste.  What  was  the 
good  of  having  all  these  beautiful  top 
dresses  if  one  was  not  daintily  attired 
throughout  ?  Anything  more  plain  and 
ugly  than  the  German  ladies'  under 
garments  I  could  not  imagine  ;  and  at  least 
I  scored  over  them  there — in  my  own 
opinion,  at  any  rate  ! 

Another  thing  that  was  extremely 
irritating  in  the  Palace  was  the  excessive 


1 84          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

red  tape,  without  which  the  smallest 
article  could  not  be  replaced.  As  boys 
will,  the  Princes  naturally  broke  things — 
either  they  smashed  small  toilet  articles, 
or  else  they  managed  to  damage  their 
rooms  after  the  manner  of  boys  all  the 
world  over.  I  do  not  remember  that 
they  broke  any  windows,  but  I  am  sure 
they  could  not  have  been  healthy  youths 
if  they  had  not,  and  they  certainly  were 
quite  normal  specimens  of  boisterous 
boyhood.  It  was  most  tiresome  to  have 
to  wait  until  the  yards  of  red  tape  were 
measured  out,  and  the  article  in  question 
could  be  mended  ;  in  fact,  when  ordering 
any  small  necessities  for  my  charges,  I 
became  very  wary,  and  sent  in  my  requisi- 
tion long  before  the  things  were  really 
needed,  in  order  that  there  might  be  some 
hope  of  receiving  them  by  the  time  they 
were  actually  wanted. 

The  payment  of  salaries,  fortunately, 
was  not  such  a  dilatory  proceeding.  They 
were  paid  regularly  on  the  first  of  every 
month,  and  if  one  were  out  the  money  was 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE    185 

left  in  an  envelope  on  the  writing-table. 
There  was  a  special  office  for  this  work. 
Once  my  father  sent  me  a  little  present  of  a 
sovereign,  but  thinking  to  make  it  easier 
for  me  to  get  it  cashed,  he  made  it  payable 
to  the  Palace.  The  result  was  most  em- 
barrassing, as  it  went  straight  to  this  office, 
where  it  was  first  cashed  and  then  solemnly 
and  suddenly  presented  to  me  on  a  huge 
silver  tray  by  one  of  the  officials.  I  heard 
afterwards  that  the  incident  had  caused 
both  him  and  his  colleagues  much  amuse- 
ment, as  this  was  one  of  the  smallest  sums 
paid  out  from  their  "  Amt  "  or  office. 

The  Princes,  besides  breaking  their 
belongings,  only  just  missed  breaking  their 
bones  as  well,  though  I  am  glad  to  say  that 
nothing  very  serious  happened  while  I 
was  in  charge  of  them.  It  was  a  strain 
having  such  valuable  lives  in  one's  care, 
and  when  they  fell  and  hurt  themselves, 
my  heart  would  give  a  sudden  jump  of 
apprehension  as  to  severe  injuries,  which 
fortunately  generally  turned  out  to  be  only 
small  cuts  and  bruises. 


1 86  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

One  day  Prince  Au-Wi  cut  himself  rather 
badly,  and  lost  a  good  deal  of  blood,  though 
I  managed  to  arrest  the  worst  of  it  until 
help  arrived.  My  part  being  over,  I  was 
just  recovering  from  the  fright  I  had  had, 
when  there  burst  upon  my  ears  a  scream  so 
loud  that  six  lackeys  from  different  parts 
of  the  grounds  ran  to  the  spot  from  which 
the  sound  came. 

It  was  Prince  Adalbert  falling  down- 
stairs. I  thought  he  was  stunned  when 
we  reached  him,  but  he  seemed  to  recover, 
and  insisted  on  coming  down  to  luncheon 
that  day. 

In  order  to  spare  the  Kaiserin's  maternal 
anxiety  amid  the  strain  of  her  busy  life,  I 
was  supposed  not  to  trouble  her  with 
accounts  of  such  hurts  which  did  not  prove 
of  a  serious  nature  ;  but  on  this  and  other 
similar  occasions  I  was  often  at  a  loss  as  to 
whether  I  should  tell  her  or  not. 

A  good  many  at  the  Court  became 
nervous  wrecks,  and  had  to  resign  their 
positions.  One  of  the  Empress's  chamber- 
lains left  while  I  was  there  —  utterly 


INTRICACIES  OF  COURT  LIFE     187 

collapsed.  Most  of  them  inherited  their 
positions  from  their  parents,  and  were 
trained  for  the  rigorous  self-denial  which 
their  duties  demanded.  Indeed,  it  proved 
the  necessity  of  being  born  and  bred  to 
such  an  existence,  which,  in  spite  of  its 
prestige  and  privileges  of  a  certain  kind, 
was  not  by  any  means  a  bed  of  roses. 
Though  living  in  the  lap  of  luxury,  it  was  a 
constant  rush  and  strain  to  get  through 
one's  work  and  meet  the  sudden  demands 
on  one  with  a  smiling  face,  to  be  ready  to 
go  anywhere  and  do  anything  at  a  minute's 
notice. 

Indeed,  I  often  found  it  in  my  heart  to 
add  a  clause  to  my  litany  : 

"  From  a  Court  life,  good  Lord,  deliver 
me." 

Such  lives,  however,  ennoble  character, 
endurance  being  the  dominant  note.  I 
remember  when  attending  a  certain  visiting 
Princess  how  striking  was  her  power  of 
silently  bearing  pain.  She  had  gone  to 
open  some  bazaar,  and  in  leaving  her  fingers 
became  crushed  in  the  carriage  door.  It 


i88          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

was  not  until  we  had  driven  some  little 
way  out  that  I  noticed  the  mat  was  stained 
with  blood,  and  looking  up  I  saw  this  little 
lady  deathly  white.  In  leaving,  she  had 
bowed  and  smiled  herself  away  from 
the  hall,  and  in  spite  of  her  suffering  she 
had  graciously  acknowledged  the  cheering 
crowd  —  so  much  so  that  until  I  noticed 
the  mat,  I  had  no  suspicion  of  what  had 
happened. 


CHAPTER    VIII 
POMP  AND  PAGEANT 

LIFE  in  the  Neues  Palais  at  Potsdam 
was  much  more  to  my  liking  than  the 
routine  of  the  Berlin  Schloss.     Here 
everything  was  extremely  official,  and  the 
whole  building  was  crammed.     I  had  only 
a  small  bed-sitting  room  allotted  to  me,  in 
which  I  often  had  to  take  my  meals. 

At  Potsdam,  too,  there  were  none  too 
many  rooms,  and  I  remember  being  accom- 
modated in  one  which  connected  on  the 
one  side  with  the  Kaiserin's  apartments 
and  on  the  other  with  the  Princes'  rooms. 
The  idea  was  that  I  should  be  near  my 
charges,  but  the  corridor-like  nature  of  my 
room  did  not  add  to  its  comfort :  in  every 
other  respect  it  was  pleasing,  for  it  was 
lofty,  and  in  many  ways  beautiful.  Often 

the  Kaiserin  would  pass  through,  and  it 

189 


190          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

being  etiquette  to  bow  to  her  whenever 
and  wherever  one  saw  her,  I  was  sometimes 
at  a  loss  to  know  if  it  was  the  correct  thing 
to  do  so  in  a  state  of  deshabille ! 

As  a  general  rule,  though,  I  was  more 
comfortable  in  this  Palace  than  in  any, 
and  for  a  long  time  I  occupied  two  delight- 
fully large  rooms.  My  sitting-room  was 
really  very  beautiful.  The  walls  were  of 
old  painted  silk,  the  entire  furniture  was 
of  white  enamel  and  gold,  the  doors  and 
woodwork  being  decorated  in  the  same 
manner.  The  fireplace  was  rather  a  fine 
one,  and  bore  the  letter  "  F  "  in  the  middle, 
in  token  of  the  Palace  having  been  built  by 
Frederick  the  Great.  Here,  as  in  the  other 
palaces,  huge  wood  fires  were  kept  burning. 
My  bedroom  furniture  I  longed  to  send 
home  to  my  people  for  their  drawing-room  : 
I  do  not  mean  by  this  that  I  intended  send- 
ing such  utilitarian  objects  as  beds  and 
washhand-stands,  and  chests  of  drawers 
— I  am  simply  alluding  to  the  beautiful 
Chippendale  writing-table  and  cupboards, 
outlined  with  gold,  which  adorned  the  room. 


%"     POMP  AND  PAGEANT         191 

On  warm  evenings,  at  this  Neues  Palais, 
the  Princes  and  myself  usually  had  supper 
out  of  doors,  while  Their  Majesties  had 
dinner  served  on  the  terrace  a  little  later. 
The  great  drawback  to  these  otherwise 
delightful  meals  was  the  plague  of  mos- 
quitoes, but  the  trouble  was  mitigated  to 
some  extent  by  smoke  fires ;  later,  the 
nuisance  was  stopped  by  the  filling  in  of 
some  ponds  near  by  in  which  the  mosquitoes 
were  in  the  habit  of  breeding. 

I  used  very  much  to  enjoy  the  drives 
round  Potsdam,  but  it  was  quite  unavoid- 
able that  I  should  on  some  occasions  return 
alone  in  the  Royal  carriage,  much  to  the 
annoyance  and  disgust  of  the  guard ;  for 
in  spite  of  the  removal  of  the  broad  silver 
band  with  an  eagle  emblazoned  thereon, 
worn  by  the  coachman  and  footmen  when 
driving  Royalty,  my  arrival  was  often  the 
cause  of  a  needless  turning  out  to  salute. 
When  driving  the  Royal  Household,  only 
a  narrow  band  of  silver  braid  is  worn. 

Once  I  took  the  Princes  to  some  function, 
driving  there  in  the  Kaiserin's  own  victoria, 


192  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

with  its  beautiful  blue  satin  upholstery  and 
silver  wheels ;  and  returning  alone,  I  was 
aware  of  being  a  serious  disappointment  to 
many  people,  who,  seeing  the  carriage  from 
afar,  expected  their  Empress,  and  found  it 
contained  only  the  "  Englanderin,"  or  the 
Englishwoman. 

Photographers  often  snapped  me  as  I 
passed  alone  in  the  carriage,  as  I  was  sup- 
posed to  have  had  a  certain  resemblance 
to  some  Princess  (I  do  not  know  which). 
This  tickled  my  sense  of  humour,  but  it 
was  really  most  embarrassing. 

I  always  avoided  being  included  in 
photographs  if  it  were  possible,  but  I  could 
not  always  control  circumstances.  Once 
at  Schloss  Urville,  a  group  photograph  was 
being  taken  after  luncheon.  I  had  retired 
to  my  room  after  the  meal,  not  being 
required  for  further  services.  Suddenly 
my  name  was  called — the  Emperor  wishing 
me  to  be  included.  There  was  no  keeping 
His  Majesty  waiting.  I  had  to  go  out  as 
I  was,  and  the  photograph,  which  a  little 
later  could  be  bought  as  a  post  card,  showed 


POMP  AND  PAGEANT         193 

me  the  only  one  without  a  hat  or  a  suitable 
outdoor  costume. 

One  afternoon,  finding  myself  off  duty, 
I  thought  I  would  inspect  the  outside  of 
the  Palace  grounds.  I  had  never  been  out 
for  a  walk  alone  since  my  arrival,  but  once 
beyond  the  gates  I  felt  I  must  go  farther 
and  farther — the  freedom  was  so  delightful. 
Walking  on,  engrossed  with  my  thoughts, 
I  never  realized  how  far  I  was  going,  or 
how  the  time  was  passing.  Suddenly, 
pulling  out  my  watch,  I  discovered  that 
there  was  only  half  an  hour  before  I  had 
to  be  back  at  the  Palace  in  service.  Then 
only  did  I  realize  that  I  had  not  the  slightest 
notion  of  the  way  I  had  come  or  the  way 
to  get  back.  I  looked  all  round  for  a 
droshky  (the  vehicle  that  one  finds  plying 
for  hire  almost  everywhere),  but  not  one 
could  I  see.  I  did  not  know  in  which 
direction  to  turn,  for  it  might  be  the  wrong 
one  and  I  should  only  go  farther  away 
instead  of  nearer  home. 

At  last,  when  I  was  almost  in  despair, 
I   saw  a  market-cart  coming  towards  me, 


i94          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

driven  by  a  couple  of  German  peasants. 
I  can  see  the  little  old  woman  now,  with 
her  apple-red  cheeks  and  clean  print  dress. 
I  stopped  the  couple,  told  them  I  was  a 
stranger,  had  lost  my  way  and  was  very 
tired,  and  that  if  they  could  put  me  down  at 
one  of  the  Palace  gates  I  could  find  my  way 
back,  and  would  be  most  grateful  to  them. 
They  said  there  was  no  room  for  me  in 
their  cart  unless  I  would  deign  to  sit  on  a 
barrel  of  onions  in  the  back  which  entirely 
filled  up  its  diminutive  space,  a  seat  which 
in  my  despair  I  thankfully  accepted.    Need- 
less to  say,  I  was  determined  they  should 
not  find  out  who  I  was.     The  drive  turned 
out  to  be  quite  a  long  one,  and  I  shall  never 
forget  the  terrible  whiffs  of  onions  which 
were  wafted  up  to  me  and  which  nearly 
made  me  weep.     I  was  already  half  crying 
when  they  picked  me  up,  what  with  ex- 
haustion   and    the    nervous    fear    of    not 
getting  back  in  time.     My  chief  anxiety, 
however,  was  that  someone  belonging  to 
the  Court  would  recognize  me,  and  relate 
the  tale  of  my  undignified  drive  through 


POMP  AND  PAGEANT         195 

Potsdam  seated  on  a  barrel  of  onions ! 
Very  hard  and  uncomfortable  it  was,  too  ! 
I  made  myself  as  small  as  I  could  and 
crouched  behind  the  old  couple,  whose 
ample  proportions  I  blessed  for  shielding 
me  from  the  gaze  of  the  passers-by.  I  was 
indeed  thankful  when  I  found  we  were 
nearing  the  Palace  gates,  and  I  got  them 
to  put  me  down  some  little  distance  off. 
Fortunately,  I  had  some  money  with  me, 
though  the  kind  souls  did  not  expect  a 
reward.  Waiting  till  they  were  well  out 
of  sight,  I  walked  up  to  the  Palace  and 
presented  my  pass,  gaining  admittance  only 

just  in  time. 

*  *  *  * 

That  year  there  were  great  goings  on. 
The  Emperor  and  Empress  and  many  of 
their  suite  went  off  to  Breslau  for  the 
manoeuvres,  at  which  the  Tsar  and  Tsarina 
of  Russia  were  present,  it  being  their  first 
public  appearance  in  Germany  since  the 
Tsar's  coronation. 

Then  we  had  a  visit  from  that  great  man 
of  China,  Li  Hung-Chang.  He  had  come 


196          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

over  to  represent  his  Emperor  at  the  Tsar's 
coronation,  and  afterwards  visited  Germany, 
England,  and  France.  He  brought  his 
coffin  with  him  in  case  he  should  die  while 
in  Europe.  The  reviews  held  at  Potsdam 
during  his  visit  were  exceptionally  brilliant. 
There  he  would  be,  seated  in  the  Palace 
grounds,  sheltering  under  a  large  black 
umbrella  in  bright  sunshine,  which  looked 
remarkably  out  of  place  and  extremely 
conspicuous  in  the  midst  of  the  many 
bright  uniforms  surrounding  him  on  every 
side.  Unfortunately,  I  cannot  recall  any 
interesting  incidents  connected  with  his 
stay,  though  the  English  story  of  his  having 
kept  his  appointment  for  four-o'clock  tea 
with  Mr.  Gladstone  at  precisely  that  hour 
in  the  morning  remains  firmly  fixed  in  my 
memory. 

Years  after,  when  travelling  in  China, 
I  visited  the  mausoleum  of  this  famous  old 
statesman  ;  to  my  European  eyes  it  was 
remarkably  ugly,  and  the  chief  impression 
I  retained  was  one  of  colour — a  rather  ugly 
bluish  shade. 


POMP  AND  PAGEANT         197 

Another  Eastern  potentate  who  later 
came  to  visit  us  (in  August  1897)  was  the 
King  of  Siam ;  not  the  present  Sovereign, 
His  Majesty  Chowfa  Maha  Vijiravudh,  who 
is  on  exceedingly  good  terms  with  England, 
having  been  recently  made  an  honorary 
General  of  the  British  Army,  but  the 
King  of  Siam  who  came  to  visit  the  Kaiser 
at  Potsdam — King  Chulalonkorn,  an  ex- 
ceedingly nice  man,  so  everyone  said,  of 
most  delightful  manners  and  high  intel- 
lectual capacity.  He  had  travelled  a  good 
deal,  simply  to  see  other  countries,  and 
visited  all  the  principal  cities  of  Europe, 
London  among  them.  I  was  much  inter- 
ested when  I  heard  he  was  coming  to 
Potsdam,  since,  as  I  have  already  men- 
tioned, I  had  coached  his  young  relative, 
Prince  Sithiphorn  (pronounced  Cityporn) 
in  England  prior  to  taking  up  my  appoint- 
ment at  the  German  Court.  This  little 
Prince  used  to  be  oiled  all  over,  and  gave 
forth  an  odour  which,  though  quite  agree- 
able, was  rather  overpowering  at  times. 

When  King  Chulalonkorn,  accompanied 


198          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

by  Prince  Bhurraputa,  a  boy  of  about  six- 
teen, visited  Potsdam,  they  arrived  about 
10  a.m.  There  was  great  excitement  on 
the  part  of  my  young  charges,  as  they  had 
been  told  to  address  the  King  as  "  Your 
Majesty,"  which  they  punctiliously  and 
with  great  hilarity  rehearsed  before  his 
arrival.  They  went  down  to  meet  him, 
and  to  my  surprise  returned  quite  unhappy 
at  their  respectful  salutation  being  returned 
by  a  kiss  ! 

There  was  another  review  that  day,  and 
the  brilliant  hues  worn  by  the  King  of 
Siam's  retinue  surpassed  even  the  gor- 
geousness  of  the  full-dress  uniforms  of  the 
Prussian  officers. 

That  night  there  was  a  big  dinner,  given 
in  King  Chulalonkorn's  honour.  I  had  my 
seven-o'clock  supper  with  the  Princes  as 
usual,  but  it  was  rather  hurried,  as  they 
wanted  to  go  and  see  their  mother  dressing 
for  the  occasion.  She  was  robed  in  a  very 
gorgeous  pink  silk  dress  with  a  long  Court 
train  and  many  of  the  Crown  jewels.  A 
royal  diadem  surmounted  her  elaborate 


POMP  AND  PAGEANT         199 

coiffure,  and  her  whole  person  seemed  one 
blaze  of  rubies  and  diamonds.  She  looked 
extremely  well  that  night,  in  fact  I  have 
seldom  seen  her  look  better. 

Like  most  women,  I  am  fond  of  jewels, 
and  I  used  to  admire  the  Kaiserin's  im- 
mensely. The  set  of  jewellery  spoken  of 
as  the  Crown  jewels  comprised  six  dia- 
dems alone.  There  was  also  a  particularly 
enormous  species  of  diamond  rosette,  the 
size  of  a  monster  chrysanthemum,  which 
was  formerly  the  property  of  Napoleon. 
This  was  always  a  favourite  among  her 
jewels. 

During  my  time  one  of  the  chamberlains 
came  across  a  quantity  of  old  Court 
jewellery  hidden  away  in  the  Berlin 
Schloss.  The  discovery  caused  quite  a 
lot  of  excitement ;  it  was  a  wonderful  set 
of  emeralds  intermingled  with  diamonds, 
many  of  the  stones  being  as  much  as  two 
inches  square.  The  Kaiserin  was  just 
like  a  child  over  them,  wearing  them 
evening  after  evening,  and  leaving  all  her 
other  jewellery  untouched.  I  also  seem 


200          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

to  remember  some  wonderful  sapphires, 
which  equalled  these  emeralds  in  size. 
She  also  had  a  wonderful  collection  of 
parasols,  the  handles  of  most  of  them 
being  completely  studded  with  diamonds. 

When  the  little  Princess  Victoria  Luise 
attained  the  age  of  five  years,  her  parents 
gave  her  five  very  beautiful  pearls,  and 
subsequently  on  every  birthday  as  many 
more  as  she  was  years  of  age  were  added, 
in  order  to  complete  a  long  chain  when 
she  reached  eighteen  years  of  age.  Between 
the  birthdays  the  jeweller  had  to  seek 
everywhere  to  match  the  pearls — rather  a 
difficult  undertaking,  as  they  were  valued 
at  about  £75  each. 

The  Gratulations  Cour,  which  took  place 
at  the  Berlin  Schloss  on  New  Year's  Day, 
was  another  public  occasion  involving  great 
ceremonial.  All  the  Ambassadors  would 
drive  from  the  Embassies,  and  everyone  in 
the  Court  attended  for  the  New  Year's 
congratulations. 

I  looked  in  sympathy  at  Her  Majesty, 
only  recently  recovered  from  influenza,  for 


POMP  AND  PAGEANT         201 

whom  the  hours  were  passing  so  wearily. 
There  she  stood,  smiling  and  bowing,  but 
I  plainly  saw  tears  in  her  eyes ;  she  was 
utterly  spent,  and  so  were  the  various 
Princesses  and  courtiers.  I  remember  one 
of  them  fainting.  The  scene  reminded  me 
of  a  dolls'  house,  when  a  little  doll  is  made 
to  stand  in  a  certain  corner  of  the  house, 
and  falling  down  is  placed  up  again  with 
firm  determination.  So  with  this  weary 
Princess.  Her  faint  finished,  she  must 
return  and  stand  all  the  steadier  !  It  was 
on  this  particular  occasion  that  a  certain 
Professor,  passing  before  Their  Majesties  at 
his  first  presentation,  thought  it  a  fitting 
opportunity  to  thank  the  Kaiser  for  the 
bestowal  of  his  degree  (having  been  ad- 
vised to  do  so  by  his  friends,  by  way  of 
playing  on  this  learned  man  a  practical 
joke). 

The  effect  was  quite  appalling,  for  there 
is  usually  an  unbroken  silence  during  these 
presentations  ;  suddenly  a  very  cheerful 
voice  introduced  himself  to  his  Emperor 
as  being  most  grateful.  Many  of  us 


202  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

thought  he  had  gone  out  of  his  mind  when 
first  he  spoke ;  but  the  Kaiser  appeared  at 
his  best  on  this  occasion,  shook  hands 
heartily  and  wished  him  every  success. 

On  New  Year's  night,  and  also  generally 
on  the  Kaiser's  birthday,  a  gala  Opera  was 
held  exclusively  for  Royalties,  the  Court 
entourage,  and  diplomats  generally. 

The  Opera  House  was  festooned  with 
garlands  of  roses,  and  there  were  masses  of 
flowers  everywhere.  The  Royal  box  was 
quite  a  floral  poem.  The  stalls  were 
entirely  occupied  by  distinguished  officers 
in  full  uniform — a  perfect  blaze  of  colour 
and  sparkling  orders.  No  ladies  sat  below, 
the  boxes  and  all  other  seats  above  were 
filled  by  them  and  the  gentlemen  of  the 
Court,  and  those  from  the  various  Em- 
bassies. 

On  the  first  occasion  when  I  was 
present  a  Russian  Royalty  was  visiting 
the  Court. 

The  Royal  box  was  a  wonderful  sight. 
The  Empress  had  a  dress  of  silver  brocade 
(the  material  came  from  Russia) ;  she  wore 


POMP  AND  PAGEANT        203 

the  Crown  jewels,  and  altogether  looked 
very  regal.  The  Emperor  wore  a  Russian 
uniform,  and  the  three  eldest  Princes  sat 
behind  their  parents  in  the  uniform  of  the 
ist  Guards  Regiment,  a  regiment  which 
each  Prussian  Prince  enters  at  the  age 
of  ten  years.  During  the  intervals  the 
various  Ambassadors  were  given  an  audience 
in  the  Royal  box. 

I  drove  back  with  one  of  the  ladies-in- 
waiting.  Our  carriage  got  in  front  of  Their 
Majesties'  ;  the  crowd  thought  it  was 
the  Imperial  carriage,  and  cheered  us  all 
the  way  from  the  Opera  House  back  to  the 
Schloss.  It  was  really  very  embarrassing, 
and  I  never  quite  knew  how  to  behave  on 
these  occasions. 

There  was  a  charming  little  theatre  in 
the  Neues  Palais,  and  once,  on  the  Empress 
Frederick's  birthda}^  I  remember  seeing  a 
delightful  play  acted  there — my  German 
by  that  time  being  sufficiently  good  to 
thoroughly  enjoy  it.  I  had  had  a  strenuous 
day  as  usual,  and  had  been  out  walking 
for  four  hours.  After  tea  at  five  o'clock,  I 


204  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

went  up  to  dress,  and  was  ready  by  6.30, 
when  the  play  began,  and  continued  till 
10  p.m.  The  Kaiser  wore  the  uniform  of 
the  Dragoons  as  a  compliment  to  the 
Empress  Frederick,  the  latter  being  the 
honorary  colonel  of  the  regiment.  After 
the  theatre,  we  all  went  to  a  large  room  for 
congratulations,  where  we  stood  for  an 
hour  and  a  half.  During  the  performance 
the  wretched  chamberlains  had  stood  all 
the  time  holding  their  heavy  maces,  which 
were  only  used  on  big  occasions.  They 
used  to  tap  them  on  the  ground  to  clear 
the  way  for  the  Imperial  couple  when 
there  was  a  great  crowd,  and  it  needed  con- 
siderable adeptness  to  avoid  collisions  with 
people's  toes  in  the  crush. 

After  the  congratulations  were  over,  we 
went  into  the  Muschel-Saal,  where  supper 
was  laid  out  and  sitting  accommodation 
provided  for  two  hundred  guests  at  a  time. 
The  floral  decorations  were  beautiful,  and 
there  was  a  magnificent  gold  centre-piece 
and  gold  knives  and  forks.  The  Empress 
looked  very  handsome  in  red  silk  embossed 


POMP  AND  PAGEANT         205 

with  gold,  and  wore  one  of  her  most 
beautiful  diadems.  Having  had  nothing 
to  eat  since  tea,  I  was  very  thankful  when 
supper  came  ;  but  we  all  used  to  forgo 
an  occasional  meal  when  the  exigencies  of 
our  duties  demanded  it. 

The  Muschel-Saal  in  the  Potsdam  Palace 
was  only  used  for  big  entertainments,  and 
it  was  there  that  I  first  heard  Clara  Butt 
sing.  My  introduction  to  her  was  rather 
remarkable.  Before  there  was  any  ques- 
tion of  her  singing  at  the  Palace,  I  had 
received  a  letter  from  a  friend  in  England 
asking  whether  it  would  be  possible  for  me 
to  get  the  German  Empress  interested  in 

a  young  singer  of  the  name  of  Miss  T , 

who  had  just  entered  the  profession.  I 
at  once  went  to  the  Mistress  of  the  Robes  to 
ask  her  help  and  advice  in  the  matter,  but  I 
think  I  omitted  to  give  her  the  name  of  the 
budding  prima  donna.  The  next  day  the 
Countess  Brockdorff  informed  me  she  had 
succeeded  in  doing  what  I  asked,  and  the 
lady  had  been  commanded  to  perform  at 
the  Palace.  Further,  the  Kaiserin  told 


206          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

me  that,  being  my  friend,  she  had  been 
asked  to  a  private  tea  at  the  Palace. 

Then  I  found  that  Miss  Clara  Butt,  and 
not  the  lady  my  friend  had  written  about, 
had  been  asked,  as  a  result  of  some  mistake 
in  the  name.  Etiquette  forbade  my  reveal- 
ing the  error,  and  I  had  to  pass  as  Clara 
Butt's  friend — a  fact  which  she  will  doubt- 
less recall.  However,  this  mistake  proved 
of  mutual  benefit,  as  she  was  asked  to  sing 
under  exceptional  circumstances  before  the 
German  Emperor  and  Empress. 

I  can  see  her  now,  standing  in  the  Muschel- 
Saal,  robed  in  white  satin  after  the  Greek 
style,  her  tall  figure  the  central  object  of 
interest  as  she  towered  over  her  listening 
audience.  The  huge  hall  was  purposely 
left  in  darkness  save  for  one  lamp,  which 
cast  its  rays  on  her  slightly  swaying  figure. 

She  sang  without  a  piano,  and  only  those 
who  have  heard  her  rich  and  deep  con- 
tralto can  in  some  measure  imagine  the 
weird  effect  of  hearing  the  sad  strains  of 
"  Kathleen  Mavourneen  "  as  sung  by  her. 
Then  she  sang  "  I  dreamt  I  dwelt  in  marble 


POMP  AND  PAGEANT         207 

halls  "  ;  and  after  that  she  imitated  a  cornet 
by  singing  through  her  teeth,  and  really, 
the  sound  was  exactly  like  one.  But  her 
last  song  was  the  most  memorable,  and  I 
can  never  forget  hearing  the  soul-stirring 
notes  of  her  glorious  voice  as  she  sang  that 
fine  old  hymn  "  Abide  with  me." 

Talking  of  music,  I  shall  never  forget 
attending  a  certain  concert  to  which  I  was 
sent  alone,  the  other  ladies  not  being  able 
to  go.  I  was  given  a  box  high  up  in  a 
conspicuous  position,  where  everyone  could 
see  me.  I  never  had  more  occasion  to 
regret  my  sense  of  humour,  and  the  strain 
it  involved  in  keeping  my  countenance. 
The  first  item  was  a  song  by  a  rather  lame 
officer,  who  was  wheeled  in.  I  ought  not 
to  have  laughed  at  him,  even  to  myself, 
because  of  his  infirmity ;  but  he  was 
exceptionally  fat,  and  his  voice  was  almost 
beyond  control. 

The  song  seemed  to  consist  of  three 
words,  bellowed  forth  like  a  bull  :  "  Ich  bin 
es,"  which  being  literally  translated  mean 
"  I  am  it."  What  "  it  "  really  was,  I  did 


208          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

not  manage  to  discover,  until  I  found  in 
my  German  phrase-book  that  "  Ich  bin  es," 
or  "  I  am  it,"  meant "  It  is  I,"  which  difficult 
translation  I  might  have  evolved  for  myself 
at  the  time.  Next  a  little  spitfire  of  a 
man  flew  up  and  down  the  piano,  and 
his  name,  much  to  my  amusement,  was 
"  Speed." 

A  rather  exceptional  fancy  dress  ball 
was  given  during  my  sojourn  at  the  Court. 
The  costumes  worn  represented  Court 
dresses  and  uniforms  of  a  hundred  years 
previously.  It  was  called  "  the  Century 
Ball,"  and  took  place  in  the  Weisser-Saal. 

I  was  in  a  box  looking  down  on  the 
ball-room,  and  witnessed  the  scene  from 
beginning  to  end.  When  all  the  guests 
were  assembled,  the  heralds,  likewise  in 
costume  of  a  hundred  years  ago,  announced 
with  a  blare  of  trumpets  Their  Majesties' 
entrance. 

All  I  can  remember  of  the  Empress's 
costume  is  that  it  was  very  wonderful  and 
that  she  wore  her  hair  powdered,  and  I  am 
afraid  I  do  not  recollect  the  details  of  many 


POMP  AND  PAGEANT         209 

of  the  other  dresses,  the  powdered  heads 
and  beauty  spots  on  my  friends'  faces  im- 
pressing me  most. 

The  various  Ambassadors  wore  the 
costume  of  their  country  a  century  pre- 
viously, and  very  brilliant  was  the  scene. 
Those  devotees  of  Terpsichore  who  had 
previously  practised  them,  pirouetted  for 
our  benefit  in  minuets  and  other  old- 
fashioned  dances. 

When  it  was  time  for  supper,  the  heralds 
again  appeared,  and,  with  another  blare  of 
trumpets,  the  Imperial  couple,  followed 
by  all  the  guests,  paired  off  for  supper. 

The  following  summer,  when  at  Potsdam, 
the  Kaiser  suddenly  commanded  that  an 
alfresco  ball  in  the  same  costumes  should 
take  place  in  the  grounds  of  the  Marmor 
Palace  (the  home  of  the  present  Crown 
Prince  and  his  family). 

To  quote  from  my  diary  : 

"  Drove  in  attendance  on  the  Kaiserin 

till  5.45,  as  all  the  ladies  were  having  their 

heads  dressed.     Such  crowds  were  on  the 

road.    Supper  with  Princes  at  seven  o'clock. 

14 


210          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

I  am  to  go  and  sit  with  them  in  the  little 
room  overlooking  the  grounds,  and  we  are 
going  to  listen  to  the  music." 

As  we  listened  to  the  music,  I  got  a 
sudden  command  from  the  Kaiser  that  I 
was  to  bring  the  Princes  down  and  let  them 
mingle  among  the  guests.  Needless  to  say, 
we  were  not  in  costume.  The  orchestra 
consisted  of  boys  and  girls  arrayed  in  the 
powdered  hair  and  dress  of  a  century  back. 
It  being  an  outdoor  fete  the  music  was 
supposed  to  represent  the  singing  of  birds, 
simulated  by  all  sorts  of  quaint  instruments. 

The  cuckoo  and  nightingale,  or  the 
children  representing  them,  seemed  to 
work  harder  than  the  rest,  their  calls  being 
the  most  frequent  and  the  most  insistent. 

It  was  indeed  a  fairy  scene,  the  gardens 
and  terraces  being  illuminated  by  myriads 
of  tiny  lamps,  while  the  moon  shed  a  pale 
gleam  over  all,  reflecting  her  rays  in  the 
still  waters  of  the  lake. 

The  costumes  were  really  very  beautiful, 
for  instead  of  being  composed  of  ordinary 
materials  calculated  to  give  an  effect  from 


POMP  AND  PAGEANT        211 

a  distance,  they  were  made  of  fine 
old  silks  and  brocade,  so  that  as  one 
looked  into  them  their  beauty  was  en- 
hanced. 

There  was  also  a  very  great  affair  con- 
nected with  the  coming  of  Lord  Charles 
Beresford  and  Lord  Hopetoun,  together 
with  three  hundred  Englishmen.  I  was 
very  anxious  to  know  why  they  had  come 
and  all  about  it,  but  I  never  discovered 
the  reason.  There  was  a  tremendous  to-do 
in  the  grounds,  hundreds  and  hundreds 
of  soldiers  playing  English  airs  very  well 
indeed,  and  winding  up  with  the  Zapfen- 
Streich,  only  played  on  very  rare  occa- 
sions, when  a  King  comes  to  the  Palace  on 
a  visit.  At  least  this  was  what  I  had 
been  told,  but  as  there  was  no  King  on 
this  occasion  I  could  not  see  why  the 
Zapfen-Streich  was  played.  As  it  grew 
dark  the  soldiers  carried  lighted  torches, 
and  fireworks  were  let  off  at  intervals. 

The  only  visitors  on  that  occasion  were 
a  few  Princes  and  Princesses ;  none  of 
the  Court  gentlemen  were  invited — not 


212  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

even  the  governors — of  the  whole  entourage 
only  four  Court  ladies  and  myself  being 
present. 

I  have  not  given  these  events  in  their 
correct  sequence  of  date,  but  merely  as 
they  come  into  my  mind  when  I  try  to 
recall  instances  of  pomp  and  pageant 
during  the  three  years  I  spent  at  the 
German  Court. 

There  was  a  curious  festival  which  took 
place  annually — that  of  slaying  an  ox  and 
roasting  it  whole,  after  which  it  would 
be  partaken  of  (opposite  the  Palace) 
by  the  whole  Court,  the  young  Princes 
included,  together  with  a  large  number 
of  soldiers. 

I  was  off  duty  on  this  occasion,  but  I 
watched  some  of  the  proceedings  from  my 
window.  Fortunately  for  me,  one  of  my 
sisters  and  her  husband  visited  Germany 
about  this  time,  and  came  to  see  me. 
The  Kaiserin,  much  to  my  delight,  gave 
me  a  few  days'  holiday  ;  so  I  wandered 
about  Berlin  with  them,  showing  them  the 
sights,  and  impressing  them  with  my 


POMP  AND  PAGEANT        213 

knowledge  of  the  town  and  its  language 
and  customs. 

We  visited  all  the  chief  Palaces,  and 
went  into  several  rooms  not  open  to  the 
public,  as  the  men-servants  in  charge  knew 
who  I  was,  and  were  very  deferential. 

A  visit  to  the  Palace  in  Charlotten  Hof 
was  most  interesting.  We  went  into 
Humboldt's  room,  where  he  wrote  "  The 
Cosmos."  It  was  built  to  resemble  a  cabin, 
as  if  he  were  on  board  ship  ;  all  the  washing 
apparatus  was  fixed,  so  as  not  to  fall  about 
and  break  if  the  vessel  were  encountering 
rough  weather. 

Going  to  see  the  Sans  Souci  Palace  was 
very  amusing.  The  "  Diener  "  there  let  him- 
self go  completely.  He  was  a  most  objec- 
tionable-looking man,  wore  no  uniform, 
had  a  sty  on  his  eye,  and  was  altogether  a 
most  tipsy-looking  person.  He  showed  us 
Napoleon's  rooms  ;  the  ceilings  and  walls 
had  coloured  animals  on  them  in  bas- 
relief,  which  the  Diener  said  were  all 
typical  of.  Napoleon's  character.  "For 
example,"  he  said,  "  the  parrot  to  repre- 


2i4          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

sent  his  talking  ;  the  monkey,  his  tricks," 
and  so  forth.  We  also  went  all  over  the 
Konigliches  Schloss,  the  Berlin  Palace, 
where  we  lived  when  in  the  capital.  It 
was  a  revelation  to  see  so  many  beautiful 
bedrooms  there,  for  my  own  little  room 
gave  but  a  very  poor  idea  of  it.  There  were 
seven  hundred  rooms  in  all,  and  yet  when 
the  whole  Royal  Family  was  staying  there 
we  were  terribly  cramped. 

Then  my  sister  wanted  to  see  my  young 
pupils.  Her  wish  was  granted,  and  in  they 
burst,  very  dishevelled,  having  come 
straight  from  sliding  down  a  canvas  fire- 
shoot — a  practice  of  fire-drill  which  they 
much  enjoyed  and  to  which  they  were 
therefore  particularly  addicted. 

Their  hair  was  tousled,  their  fingers  were 
sticky,  they  sucked  brandy-balls  as  they 
talked,  generously  offering  them  to  my 
sister ;  and  she,  who  had  seemed  to  expect 
Princes  to  be  different  from  other  boys, 
found  to  her  agreeable  surprise  that  this 
was  not  the  case. 

There  is  one   date  which   the   German 


POMP  AND  PAGEANT        215 

Socialists  keep  particularly,  and  on  it  I 
was  warned  never  to  wear  anything  red. 
Her  Majesty  used  to  be  unusually  anxious 
for  the  Kaiser's  safety,  as  he  used  to  make  a 
practice  of  driving  unaccompanied  through 
the  streets  of  Berlin. 

I  have  reason  to  remember  that  day, 
but  on  account  of  something  very  remote 
from  the  Socialistic  creed.  At  luncheon 
on  that  day  I  sneezed,  and  I  received  one 
of  the  severest  reprimands  I  ever  got 
from  the  Kaiserin,  who  told  me  never  to  do 
such  a  thing  again.  I  apologized  and  said 
I  did  not  know  how  to  prevent  it,  and  she 
then  showed  me  a  place  under  one's  eye 
which,  if  pressed  in  time,  would  effectually 
stop  a  sneeze.  I  have  since  discovered 
that  to  press  one's  upper  lip  is  a  more 
infallible  preventive. 

It  is  difficult  for  anyone  unacquainted 
with  Prussian  Court  life  to  imagine  what 
precautions  one  takes  to  prevent  "  in- 
fectious diseases  "  at  the  Palace,  and  even 
an  ordinary  cold  comes  under  this  cate- 
gory. I  have  been  isolated  for  some  days 


216          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

in  my  room  all  because  of  a  cold  in  the 
head. 

The  Kaiser's  antipathy  to  colds  and  sore 
throats  is  well  known,  likewise  his  fear 
of  infection.  Directly  we  heard  of  an  out- 
break of  measles,  chicken-pox,  or  more 
serious  still,  scarlet  fever  or  diphtheria,  it 
mattered  not  how  far  from  the  immediate 
vicinity,  we  would  immediately  receive 
orders  to  pack  up  at  once,  and  within  an 
hour  or  two  we  would  decamp  to  a  neigh- 
bouring Palace. 

This  same  fear  of  infection  was  also 
quite  a  mania  with  the  Crown  Prince,  who 
when  his  brothers  had  a  cold  would  throw 
things  at  them  to  prevent  them  coming 
near  him. 

On  another  occasion  diphtheria  broke 
out  in  Bornstedt  (an  adjacent  village  to 
Wildpark,  where  the  Neues  Palais  is  built). 
So  terrified  was  the  Empress  when  she 
heard  of  it  that  she  instantly  sent  for  the 
Hoffurrier  (head  over  the  servants)  and 
ordered  that  every  housemaid  and  worker 
in  the  Palace  who  came  from  that  village 


POMP  AND  PAGEANT        217 

should  be  dismissed  for  seven  weeks.  This 
meant  their  losing  all  their  earnings,  as 
they  were  given  no  compensation.  Strange 
to  say,  in  spite  of  all  these  precautions, 
one  of  the  Princes  did  contract  this  illness 
on  another  occasion. 


CHAPTER    IX 
IMPERIAL  TRAVELS 

THE  Kaiser — as  is  well  known — loves 
travelling,  and  there  is  no  word  that 
better  describes  this  than  the  German 
one  of  Wanderlust.  Those  who  have  no 
knowledge  of  the  Fatherland's  tongue  can 
gather  its  meaning  by  an  English  pro- 
nunciation of  it,  reading  it  in  one  or  in  two 
words  as  they  like  best. 

The  German  saying,  "  Der  greise  Kaiser, 
der  weise  Kaiser,  und  der  reise  Kaiser  " 
(The  old  Emperor,  the  wise  Emperor,  and 
the  travelling  Emperor),  is  a  very  true 
one — Wilhelm  II  (the  present  Kaiser)  being 
always  rushing  about  from  place  to  place. 

The  first  journey  on  which  I  accompanied 
him,  together  with  the  rest  of  the  Court, 
was  our  move  to  the  beautiful  Palace  of 
Wilhelmshohe,  near  Cassel.  One  day  I 

nl 


IMPERIAL  TRAVELS          219 

suddenly  found  on  my  table  a  card  an- 
nouncing that  the  Court  would  move  to 
this  Palace  the  day  after  to-morrow.  The 
card  announced  when  the  luggage  was  to 
be  ready,  the  time  the  carriage  would  be 
waiting,  and  the  hour  of  the  train's  depar- 
ture— a  terribly  early  one,  it  seemed  to  me  ; 
but  one  practically  always  got  up  soon  after 
daybreak,  so  I  was  more  or  less  accustomed 
to  it  by  that  time.  In  fact,  it  was  in 
Germany  that  I  acquired  that  excellent 
habit  of  early  rising,  for  which  I  am  not 
sorry  now. 

As  regards  preparations,  I  was  informed 
that  each  lady  was  allowed  a  certain 
number  of  boxes,  and  woe  betide  her 
if  she  overstepped  the  limit !  These  were 
expected  to  be  made  of  compressed  cane, 
and  all  of  one  pattern.  At  6  a.m.  the 
carriages  were  waiting  to  convey  us  to 
the  Kaiser's  private  station  entrance, 
where  the  Royal  train  was  drawn  up  in 
readiness.  There  was  quite  a  little  colour 
scheme  in  the  grey  old  station,  a  red  carpet 
being  laid  down  for  Imperial  feet  to  tread 


220          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

on,  the  train  itself  being  painted  a  bright 
Prussian  blue,  picked  out  with  gold  and 
cream  colour,  while  the  early  morning 
sunlight  slanting  down  through  uncovered 
spaces  in  the  roof  above  greatly  enhanced 
the  effect. 

But  the  train's  brilliant  exterior  was 
nothing  to  the  luxury  of  its  interior.  Not 
only  a  dining-room,  but  a  well-stocked 
library,  a  lounge,  and  a  writing-room  were 
provided,  besides  which  there  was  a  separate 
coupe"  for  each  lady  (including  myself), 
with  everything  beautifully  fitted  up.  In 
fact,  I  believe  there  were  bathrooms 
attached  to  the  Royal  suites,  and  also  to 
those  of  the  Court  holding  the  highest 
positions. 

One  of  my  young  charges,  Prince  Adal- 
bert, informed  me  that  this  train  was 
constructed  in  order  that  the  Imperial 
Family  could  live  there  in  comfort  while 
at  a  standstill  in  a  tunnel  should  war 
oblige  them  to  do  so. 

That  must  have  been  quite  his  own 
idea,  for  at  that  time  there  was  certainly 


IMPERIAL  TRAVELS          221 

no  reference  to  a  possible  clash  between 
the  nations.  Now  one  hears  much  of  the 
Kaiser's  rapid  journeys  to  and  fro,  and 
one  wonders  whether  that  train  which  I 
remember  so  well  is  used  for  the  purpose. 

When  I  knew  it,  it  was  painted  a  bright 
blue  ;  it  would  undoubtedly  be  a  grey-green 
now. 

I  have  read  much  of  the  extreme  dis- 
comfort and  the  horrible  bone-shaking 
of  German  trains,  even  the  Royal  ones, 
within  the  last  few  years.  Although  it  is  a 
long  time  now  since  I  travelled  by  them, 
and  the  trains  must  have  been  even  more 
bumping,  grinding,  and  shaking  in  my  time 
than  ever,  yet  this  did  not  seem  to  worry 
me.  I  was  young  and  strong  at  the  time, 
and  I  think  the  novelty  of  it  and  the  pure 
joy  of  seeing  new  places  helped  to  remove 
the  discomfort. 

There  was  much  enjoyment  in  these 
journeys.  Much  of  the  stiffness  of  eti- 
quette was  necessarily  dropped  for  the 
time,  but  one  had  to  keep  up  the  usual 
custom  of  changing  for  luncheon  and 


222  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

dinner,  after  which  we  would  as  a  rule 
play  games.  Wherever  we  stopped,  ad- 
dresses were  presented  to  the  Kaiser  and 
bouquets  to  the  Kaiserin,  there  would  be 
a  row  of  staring  faces  gazing  at  each  one 
of  us  amid  vociferous  cheering.  Always  as 
the  train  steamed  out,  the  stationmaster 
stood  stiffly  at  the  salute  till  we  had 
passed  from  sight. 

We  were  occasionally  in  the  train  for  as 
many  as  eighteen  to  twenty-four  hours  at 
a  time,  and  when  the  hour  for  retiring 
came,  the  seats  would  be  converted  into 
beds,  which  looked  inviting  enough  with 
their  snowy  white  linen,  embroidered  as 
usual  with  the  Royal  Crown.  On  negoti- 
ating these  beds,  however,  they  seemed 
somewhat  hard,  especially  the  pillows. 
Nevertheless,  I  used  to  go  to  bed  and 
managed  to  sleep  pretty  well  till  about 
5.30  a.m.,  when  I  would  be  suddenly 
awakened  by  one  of  the  ladies  to  look 
out  and  see  the  sun  rise  over  the  beautiful 
Rhine  or  other  country  through  which 
we  might  be  passing.  Then  I  would  get 


IMPERIAL  TRAVELS  223 

up  and  make  my  toilet  in  the  limited  space 
which  the  train  afforded.  I  do  not,  of 
course,  mean  that  the  train  was  less  roomy 
than  an  ordinary  train ;  but  after  the 
spaciousness  of  Court  life  one  was  always 
conscious  of  being  cramped  while  travelling. 
But  this  must  be  added,  one's  comfort 
was  always  considered  so  far  as  possible, 
to  the  extent  even  of  a  large  supply  of 
hot  water. 

Breakfast  was  at  8  a.m.,  and  I  remember 
once,  only  two  ladies  being  present,  I  sat 
on  the  Kaiser's  left,  an  unprecedented 
honour  for  me  on  such  an  occasion,  and 
one  which  did  not  occur  again. 

On  this  particular  journey  (my  first)  it 
was  raining  when  we  arrived  at  Cassel, 
our  destination,  and  I  noticed  one  young 
woman  dressed  up  in  white  muslin,  and  a 
little  girl  also,  both  carrying  bouquets. 
They  were  shivering  when  we  arrived, 
whether  with  cold  or  apprehension  I  do 
not  know,  probably  a  little  of  both.  The 
young  woman  handed  her  bouquet  to  the 
Kaiserin,  and  began  to  falteringly  read  her 


224  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

speech,  which  she  held  up  in  front  of  her, 
written  out  on  a  card. 

She  began  it,  but  gasping  for  breath, 
broke  off  with  a  nervous  laugh,  and  was 
quite  unable  to  continue.  The  little  girl 
then  saved  the  situation  by  coming  forward 
and  handing  her  rather  smaller  bouquet 
to  the  Princess,  which  she  was  evidently 
supposed  to  do  after  the  other  had  finished 
her  speech.  She  certainly  showed  rather 
more  self-possession  than  the  elder  one. 
The  Kaiserin,  as  usual,  was  most  kind, 
and  put  the  unfortunate  woman  at  her 
ease ;  but  personally  I  had  great  sympathy 
with  her,  for  I  thought  had  I  been  in  the 
same  position  I  should  probably  have 
covered  myself  with  confusion.  Perhaps 
my  face  expressed  what  I  felt,  as  I  caught 
a  grateful  look  in  my  direction  on  the 
poor  girl's  face. 

After  alighting  at  the  station,  there 
would  invariably  be  decorated  streets  to 
drive  through,  amid  bowing  and  cheering 
and  saluting  on  every  side.  I  used  to  have 
to  keep  the  Princes  up  to  their  share  of  the 


IMPERIAL  TRAVELS  225 

business,  jogging  them  should  they  forget 
to  make  known  their  Royal  pleasure  in 
the  welcome  accorded  them. 

The  Wilhelmshohe  Palace  seemed  to  me 
one  of  the  largest  I  had  ever  been  in,  but 
in  spite  of  that  it  was  hardly  large  enough 
to  accommodate  the  many  gentlemen  the 
Kaiser  had  brought  with  him.  In  fact, 
we  could  hardly  all  fit  in.  As  usual  in  these 
cases  of  crowding,  I  was  allotted  only  a 
bed-sitting-room,  and  one  of  the  governors 
of  a  higher  rank  was  given  the  same,  a 
small  room  next  door  to  mine,  which  did 
not  please  him  at  all. 

The  Palace  of  Wilhelmshohe  is  in  the 
shape  of  a  horseshoe,  and  its  windows  are 
all  rounded.  It  stands  on  a  hill,  and 
looking  out  of  one's  window  beyond  its 
green  lawns  and  terraces  with  beds  of 
flowers  in  their  full  summer  glory,  there 
is  a  lovely  view  of  woodland  and  hillside, 
the  town  of  Cassel  being  just  visible  from 
some  aspects,  though  not  from  that  of 
my  bedroom  window.  A  large  lake  in 
the  grounds  gave  that  touch  of  charm 
'5 


226          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

which  is  always  present  when  water  is 
part  of  the  landscape. 

The  Court  usually  remained  for  six  weeks 
during  the  summer  at  this  Palace,  after 
which  it  returned  to  Potsdam  for  the  sake 
of  the  Princes'  studies.  We  were  scarcely 
installed  in  our  new  quarters  when  I  had 
a  surprise,  the  Court  doctor  informing  me 
that  I  would  find  quite  a  lot  of  money  on 
my  writing-table.  I  asked  him  what  he 
meant,  and  he  told  me  it  was  my  travelling 
allowance,  and  it  was  explained  to  me 
that  one  was  allowed  so  much  a  day  extra 
when  not  in  residence  in  Berlin  or  Potsdam. 
This  was  good  news  and  appeared  to  me 
a  very  thoughtful  institution,  as  travelling 
meant  dirtying  one's  frocks  and  more 
especially  the  white  kid  gloves  which  were 
seldom  allowed  to  be  off  one's  hands. 

Another  Royal  journey — though  to  a 
somewhat  more  distant  land,  and  one  on 
which  the  Court  naturally  did  not  travel — 
was  the  visit  of  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia 
(the  Kaiser's  brother)  to  China. 

It  was  in  the  early  days  of  1898  that 


THE  CASCADE,    WILHELMSHOHE,    NEAR  CASSEL 


IMPERIAL  TRAVELS  227 

Europe  learned  that  China  had  leased  to 
Germany  for  a  period  of  ninety-nine  years 
a  port  (situated  in  the  Shan-tung  Peninsula) 
with  a  good  harbour,  an  outlet  for  the 
mineral  wealth  of  theprovince.  Together 
with  this  went  a  considerable  extent  of 
territory  adjoining,  in  which  district  the 
town  of  Tsing-tau  was  situated.  The  port 
in  question  was  of  course  Kiao-Chow,  which 
has  come  into  prominence  lately  on  account 
of  its  surrender  in  1914  to  the  Japanese. 

Prince  Henry  started  at  the  end  of 
December  1897  on  an  expedition  to  China, 
in  command  of  a  battleship,  in  order  to 
take  formal  possession  of  the  conceded 
territory,  and  was  received  by  the  Chinese 
Emperor  at  Pekin,  with  great  display  and 
ceremonial.  I  knew,  of  course,  that  he 
was  going  to  China,  but  I  did  not  discover 
the  above  reason  for  the  expedition  until 
afterwards. 

Prince  Henry,  the  sailor,  who  generally 
lived  up  at  Kiel,  paid  us  quite  a  long  visit, 
bringing  the  Princess,  before  he  started 
for  China.  The  Princes  seemed  perfectly 


228  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

devoted  to  him,  and  he  certainly  was  an 
ideal  uncle,  spending  many  hours  with 
them,  building  them  a  remarkably  complete 
model  of  a  fortress  in  the  grounds  of  the 
Bellevue  Schloss.  It  was  pronounced  by 
experts  as  being  quite  a  show  model. 

This  expedition  to  China  was  much  talked 
of,  as  it  was  such  a  long  journey  and  a  big 
undertaking  for  which  many  preparations 
must  be  made.  I  remember  going  up- 
stairs to  the  gymnasium  in  the  Neues 
Palais  to  fetch  one  of  the  Princes,  it  being 
his  hour  for  being  with  me.  The  boy 
came  out  at  once,  but  whispered  in  my  ear 
that  I  must  not  enter  the  gymnasium. 

"  Uncle  is  taking  boxing  lessons  in  case 
a  naughty  Chinaman  should  try  and  knock 
him  down,"  he  said  quite  seriously. 

The  boys'  idea  of  the  proposed  expedition 
to  China  was  that  their  uncle  had  gone 
to  avert  war,  but  would  probably  not  suc- 
ceed, and  they  had  quite  made  up  their 
minds  that  they  would  never  see  their 
favourite  uncle  again. 

"  If  the  Chinese  did — you  know  what  I 


IMPERIAL  TRAVELS          229 

mean,  Miss  Howard — then  I  will  live  to 
revenge  on  them.  I  will  not  rest  fighting 
them  if  they  kill  our  dear  uncle,"  said 
little  Prince  Oscar  to  me  once. 

One  day  Prince  Adalbert  came  into  the 
schoolroom  with  the  announcement  that 
the  Fatherland  had  sent  ships  to  attack 
the  English  off  China  in  order  to  avenge 
the  death  of  a  German  missionary  there. 
That  was  his  idea  of  it.  It  formed  the 
chief  topic  of  conversation  at  supper  that 
evening,  and  was  the  subject  of  many 
jokes,  Prince  Adalbert  remarking  that  he 
could  picture  me  rushing  out  there  with 
thousands  of  Red  Cross  packages  under 
my  arm,  binding  up  the  wounds  of  British 
soldiers,  who  "  of  course,"  he  added, 
"  would  be  beaten  by  us  Germans." 

As  the  day  approached  on  which  Prince 
Henry  was  to  leave,  the  boys  grew  more 
and  more  unhappy  at  the  thought  of 
parting  with  him.  Try  as  much  as  they 
would,  they  were  unable  to  restrain  their 
tears  ;  all  except  little  Prince  Oscar,  who, 
bearing  in  mind  that  it  was  unmanly  to 


230          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

cry,  cultivated  a  way  of  swallowing  hard 
to  keep  the  tears  back,  which  had  the 
effect  of  giving  him  a  pain  below  his  belt, 
which  necessitated  the  doctor's  inter- 
ference, thus  making  him  more  unhappy 
than  ever. 

Prince  Adalbert  was  very  busy  being 
fitted  with  a  new  naval  uniform  to  accom- 
pany the  Kaiser  to  Kiel,  in  order  to  see 
Prince  Henry  off  to  China,  and  I  find  it 
recorded  in  my  diary  that  they  left  Pots- 
dam for  that  purpose  on  December  15, 
1897. 

Less  than  a  year  later  the  Kaiser  made 
his  celebrated  tour  through  Palestine, 
accompanied  by  his  Consort  and  most 
of  their  suite.  At  the  time  of  their  going, 
I  was  spending  a  holiday  in  England, 
and  trying  hard  to  recuperate  after  an 
illness,  in  order  to  resume  my  duties. 
On  their  return  the  Empress  presented 
me  with  a  white  vellum  case  containing  a 
copy  of  thirty-six  photographs  which  she 
had  taken  herself  throughout  the  tour. 
She  told  me  that  there  were  only  six  such 


IMPERIAL  TRAVELS          231 

sets  in  the  world,  and  the  other  five  had 
been  presented  to  Royalties  only.  I  'there- 
fore felt  much  honoured  in  being  considered 
worthy  to  receive  the  sixth  one.  One  of 
these  photos,  the  Kaiser  wearing  a  Scotch 
cap  and  smoking  a  pipe,  leaning  over  the 
bulwarks  of  the  "  Hohenzollern,"  is  repro- 
duced here. 

They  went  in  state  via  Constantinople, 
calling  on  the  Sultan  en  route,  and  con- 
tinued the  journey  throughout  the  Holy 
Land,  staying  some  time  at  Jerusalem. 

Countess  Brockdorff  told  me  that  Baron 
Mirbach,  the  master  of  the  Kaiserin's 
household,  together  with  others  of  the 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  parted  from  the 
"Hohenzollern"  at  Beirut,  travelling  by 
another  ship  to  Constantinople,  where  they 
took  the  Oriental  express  back  to  Berlin. 
She  also  wrote  to  me  saying  that  they 
hoped  to  "  receive  great  profit  to  their 
souls"  from  having  seen  the  Holy  Land; 
she  herself  did  not  cling  to  the  holy  places, 
there  being  too  much  of  ritual  adoration 
about  them  ;  but  the  scenery  and  environ- 


232          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

ment  generally  was  what  she  herself  chiefly 
enjoyed. 

Before  they  started,  I  was  informed 
that  the  chief  object  of  the  journey  to 
Jerusalem  was  to  lay  the  foundation-stone 
of  a  Lutheran  Church,  and  as  at  that  time 
there  was  quite  an  epidemic  of  church 
building,  I  was  simple  enough  to  believe 
them,  especially  as  they  had  held  forth 
to  me  on  the  sadness  of  Christianity  being 
so  little  preached  or  practised  in  the 
Holy  Land  itself.  In  fact,  the  constant 
laying  of  foundation-stones  for  churches 
was  quite  a  joke  at  one  time,  and  before 
I  left  Germany  I  remember  a  facetious 
remark  from  one  of  the  gentlemen  that 
the  only  place  left  whereon  to  lay  another 
foundation-stone  was  on  the  bald  head  of 
the  Kaiserin's  chamberlain  ! 

The  tour  lasted  about  three  months, 
and  among  those  thirty-six  photographs 
there  are  beautiful  views  of  Constantinople, 
Jaffa,  Jerusalem,  the  ruins  of  Baalbek, 
and  other  places  of  interest  in  the  Holy 
Land.  Then  there  was  a  photograph  of 


IMPERIAL  TRAVELS  233 

the  Kaiser  on  board  the  "  Hohenzollern,"  off 
Beirut — not  the  one  in  the  Scotch  cap, 
but  wearing  ordinary  naval  uniform,  look- 
ing rather  fierce,  and  with  two  huge 
baskets  of  fruit  on  either  side  of  him. 

Yet  another  of  him,  wearing  a  sort  of 
long  mosquito  veil  dangling  from  his  helmet, 
I  suppose  as  a  protection  against  the  sun. 

The  photographs  were  well  chosen  and 
well  taken ;  they  made  me  long  to  travel 
through  the  Holy  Land  and  see  the  places 
with  my  own  eyes. 


CHAPTER    X 
THE  QUEEN  OF  THE  BELGIANS 

IN  the  summer  of  1897,  the  Kaiser  being 
away  on  one  of  his  many  journeys, 
the  Kaiserin  decided  to  pay  a  visit  to 
Tegernsee,  Bavaria,  the  summer  home  of 
Duke  Charles  Theodore  of  Bavaria,  the 
father  of  the  present  Queen  of  the  Belgians. 

Since  the  latter  is  now  so  much  in  the 
public  eye,  it  may  be  of  interest  if  I  relate 
in  detail  everything  that  diary  and  memory 
combined  can  furnish  as  to  the  incidents  of 
this  visit. 

The  Kaiserin  travelled  incognito  as  the 
Countess  of  Ravensburg,  and  all  the  Princes 
came  too.  Though  we  were  but  a  small 
party  compared  with  the  usual  suite,  it 
took  three  large  houses  to  accommodate 
us  all. 

These  three  houses  were  all  adjacent  to 

»34 


QUEEN  OF  THE  BELGIANS     235 

each  other,  and  were  placed  at  the  Kaiserin's 
disposal  by  a  German  millionaire  who  had 
acquired  his  wealth  in  South  Africa. 

The  central  and  largest  villa  was  called 
Sanger-Schloss,  and  in  this  house  the 
Empress  and  one  or  two  ladies,  the  youngest 
children,  and  my  humble  self  were  accom- 
modated. The  elder  boys  occupied  one  of 
the  smaller  adjacent  villas,  Villa  Nicol,  not 
nearly  so  palatial  a  house  as  Sanger- 
Schloss,  which  was  furnished  in  such  an 
overpoweringly  luxurious  style  as  to  make 
it  really  ugly. 

In  my  bedroom — though  quite  a  small 
one — there  was  a  wonderful  toilet-set  of 
silver  inlaid  with  gold.  On  the  bed  there 
were  no  less  than  three  bedspreads ;  the 
top  one  was  of  exquisite  real  lace,  the  next 
a  rich  salmon-coloured  satin  heavily  em- 
broidered with  gold,  and  below  that  came 
a  thick  blue  silk  coverlet,  for  warmth,  I 
suppose,  though  it  could  hardly  be  described 
as  an  eider-down. 

Every  modern  convenience  was  there — 
telegraph  communication  direct  to  the 


236  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

house,  a  telephone  by  the  Kaiserin's  bed- 
side, electric  light  in  every  conceivable 
corner  ;  and  finding  these  comforts  so  much 
up  to  date  in  an  out-of-the-way  Bavarian 
mountain  village,  it  struck  me  that  the 
owner  must  have  gone  to  considerable 
expense  to  have  them  newly  installed  in 
honour  of  the  Royal  visit. 

The  site  of  Sanger-Schloss  was  well 
chosen,  with  a  glorious  view  over  the  blue 
waters  of  the  Lake  of  Tegernsee,  across 
which  stood  revealed  the  snow-covered 
peaks  of  the  mountains  beyond. 

Within  an  easy  drive  was  the  ducal 
castle,  whither  the  Royal  Family  often 
repaired  to  visit  their  cousins.  This 
ancient  pile,  on  which  the  centuries  have 
laid  their  beautifying  hands,  was  originally 
a  monastery.  It  makes  a  fine  large  castle, 
built  as  it  is  in  quadrangle  form,  and  years 
ago  it  was  even  larger,  for  the  monks,  finding 
it  too  big  for  them,  pulled  down  portions 
of  it  and  sold  the  blocks  of  stone  for  a  sum 
which  eventually  equalled  the  outlay  on 
the  original  building. 


QUEEN  OF  THE  BELGIANS     237 

The  Duke  Charles  Theodore  of  Bavaria 
was  brother  to  the  Empress  of  Austria  and 
one  of  the  finest  and  most  respected 
members  of  the  house  of  Wittelsbach. 

Married  to  the  Princess  May  of  Braganza, 
he  early  renounced  the  tedious  ceremonial 
of  a  Court  life,  and  seldom  came  to  Berlin, 
except  when  formal  occasions  demanded  it, 
preferring  to  devote  himself  to  the  study 
of  medicine  and  the  healing  of  men  rather 
than  their  destruction  by  the  science  of 
war.  Like  all  German  princes,  born  and 
bred  to  be  a  soldier,  he  attained  the  rank 
of  General  in  the  Bavarian  army ;  but, 
contrary  to  all  tradition,  he  insisted  on 
qualifying  as  an  oculist  at  the  Munich 
University,  and  special  permission  for  him 
to  practise  as  one  had  to  be  issued  by 
Imperial  edict.  When  I  was  presented  to 
him  in  1897,  he  was  sixty-seven  years  of 
age,  and  had  built  an  eye  hospital  in  Munich, 
where  he  performed  many  marvellous 
operations  and  effected  several  wonderful 
cures  on  the  poor  and  needy. 

His    daughter,    the    Princess   Elisabeth, 


238  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

who  afterwards  in  1900  married  the  present 
King  of  the  Belgians,  used  to  assist  him 
in  this  noble  and  charitable  work,  and  it 
was  in  that  connexion  that  I  first  heard  of 
her.  The  training  of  those  early  days, 
freely  and  willingly  given,  was  but  the 
prelude  to  the  noble  and  arduous  work 
which  she,  the  Queen  of  a  brave  and  suffer- 
ing people,  is  now  called  upon  to  perform. 
The  world  knows  the  bravery  and  endurance 
she  has  shown,  and  is  still  showing,  since 
those  fateful  days  of  August  1914,  and 
there  is  little  need  for  me  to  relate  it  here. 
Let  me  get  back  to  the  story  of  my  visit 
to  her  girlhood's  home  at  Tegernsee, 
Bavaria,  in  August  of  the  year  1897. 

There  was  a  big  birthday  luncheon 
party  at  the  Duke's  castle  soon  after 
our  arrival.  My  young  pupils  were  all 
asked,  and  an  invitation  also  extended 
to  me. 

The  luncheon  was  to  be  at  one  o'clock, 
and  Countess  Keller  (the  Empress's  lady- 
in-waiting)  and  I  drove  on  ahead,  a  little 
in  front  of  the  others.  The  Princes  were 


QUEEN  OF  THE  BELGIANS     239 

shepherded  by  their  governors,  and  followed 
behind  us. 

On  arrival  at  the  castle  we  were  met  by 
the  Mistress  of  the  Robes,  together  with  the 
Hofmarschall  and  others  of  the  suite. 

Then  we  were  formally  presented  to  the 
Duke  and  Duchess,  their  two  sons  and 
three  daughters,  and  one  or  two  minor 
Royalties  who  happened  to  be  present. 
The  Duke  and  Duchess  appeared  to  me 
extraordinarily  young-looking,  and  I  could 
hardly  believe  the  former  was  as  much  as 
sixty-seven.  The  Duchess  was  very  at- 
tractive, though  rather  frail-looking. 

I  happened  to  have  noted  down  the 
details  of  her  dress,  so,  for  the  benefit  of 
my  feminine  readers,  I  record  it  here  that 
she  wore  a  rich  white  silk,  patterned  with 
flowers  and  with  pale  heliotrope  stripes. 
Her  three  daughters  were  all  garbed  alike 
in  dresses  of  pale  blue  silk  trimmed  with 
cream  lace. 

I  have  heard  it  said  that  the  Queen  of 
the  Belgians  is  one  of  the  best  dressed 
women  among  Royalties,  and  that  this  is 


24o          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

true  I  have  no  doubt,  as  even  in  those  early 
days  in  her  country  home  she  always 
appeared  in  the  most  tasteful  and  effective 
costumes.  All  three  daughters  had  very 
good  figures,  and  were  slight ;  they  held 
themselves  very  well,  no  doubt  due  to  their 
open-air  life  and  athletic  training. 

Princess  Sophie,  the  eldest  daughter  at 
home,  having  a  married  sister  older  than 
herself,  was  tallest  of  the  three  daughters. 
Very  fair  and  striking-looking,  she  held 
herself  most  beautifully. 

The  Princess  gave  me  no  opportunity 
of  talking  with  her  on  this  occasion.  In 
fact,  I  saw  very  little  of  her  at  all.  I  heard 
afterwards  that  she  had  married  into  the 
nobility,  which  did  not  surprise  me,  as  I 
should  quite  expect  "  love  "  to  rule  each 
individual  life  in  that  beautiful  old  home. 

Though  I  little  knew  of  the  great  future 
in  store  for  Princess  Elisabeth,  I  was  more 
interested  in  her  and  her  younger  sister 
than  in  any  of  the  others.  Then  at  the  age 
of  twenty-one,  the  future  Queen  of  the 
Belgians  bore  herself  in  a  manner  which, 


QUEEN  OF  THE  BELGIANS     241 

though  charming  and  unaffected,  yet 
showed  signs  of  regal  reserve  and  dignity, 
should  occasion  require.  Her  blue  eyes 
looked  out  of  a  delicate  oval  face,  full  of 
character,  framed  in  a  background  of 
soft  brown  hair.  Beyond  several  exchanges 
of  common-places,  I  cannot  remember 
much  conversation  with  the  Princess,  but 
I  feel  glad  that  I  had  that  opportunity 
of  seeing  a  little  of  the  home  life  of  a 
Princess  whose  noble  work  in  her  role  of 
Queen  of  the  Belgians  has  evoked  such 
praise  and  admiration  from  all  the  world. 
Her  sister,  the  Princess  Marie-Gabrielle, 
her  junior  by  fifteen  months,  was  very 
different,  both  in  appearance  and  in  person- 
ality. Strikingly  beautiful,  with  masses  of 
brown  tresses  lit  by  a  gleam  of  auburn, 
there  was  about  her  an  engaging  and 
appealing  frankness  that  completely  won 
my  heart.  Full  of  fun,  the  gayest  of  the 
gay,  I  found  my  eyes  constantly  reverting 
from  the  face  of  one  sister  to  the  other.  I 
had  heard  how  the  high  spirits  of  the 
youngest  had  led  her  into  mischief,  the 

16 


242  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

punishment  for  which  was  rather  severe. 
It  appears  she  had  mixed  ink  in  to  the  Holy 
Water  at  the  church  entrance,  and,  not 
perceiving  it  in  the  dim  light,  many  devout 
nuns  had  returned  from  their  devotions 
to  unknowingly  greet  their  Mother  Superior 
with  marked  foreheads  !  I  could  under- 
stand the  sacrilege  this  would  mean  to  a 
Catholic,  but  as  one  looked  at  the  girl's 
beautiful  face  one  could  see  nothing  bad 
in  it,  and  I  am  afraid  I  smiled  to  myself 
at  this  mischievous  outcome  of  youth  and 
high  spirits. 

While  I  stood  thus  musing  and  studying 
the  future  Queen  of  the  Belgians  and  her 
youngest  sister,  everyone  else  was  being 
presented  all  round.  Then  we  were  mar- 
shalled into  a  marble  dining-hall,  where 
a  long  table  was  set  in  the  centre.  The 
Duke  and  Duchess  and  their  grown-up 
guests  all  sat  on  one  side,  while  the  young 
people,  my  Princes,  their  cousins  and  their 
governors  were  on  the  other.  Luncheon 
was  served  with  a  quiet  and  refined  sim- 
plicity. The  lackeys  —  few  in  number — 


QUEEN  OF  THE  BELGIANS     243 

wore  the  Bavarian  livery  of  blue  relieved 
by  silver  buttons.  The  artistic  shade  of 
this  blue  made  quite  a  note  of  colour 
against  the  background  of  grey  marble. 

Just  as  the  Kaiser  is  always  served  by 
his  Jdgers  wherever  he  may  be,  so  too  the 
Duke  was  served  by  an  old  retainer  with 
a  long  grey  beard,  wearing  the  attractive 
huntsman's  uniform. 

When  serving  luncheon  I  noticed  that  the 
servants  always  added  "Guten  Appetit." 
This  expression  or  its  equivalent  *'  Mahlzeit " 
is  in  common  use  in  the  greater  part  of 
Germany,  but  in  the  Royal  Court  it  was 
not  the  custom  to  exchange  this  friendly 
greeting. 

The  Duke  brewed  his  own  beer,  or  rather, 
he  possessed  a  brewery,  and  each  person 
was  supplied  with  an  enormous  glass  of  beer, 
while  beside  one's  plate  was  a  yellow-tipped 
wooden  toothpick. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  meal,  the  Duke 
made  an  appropriate  speech,  which,  the 
Crown  Prince  later  informed  me,  was  the 
first  he  had  ever  made  of  a  similar  kind. 


244          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

Only  before  his  men  did  he  ever  indulge 
in  speech-making.  The  Crown  Prince 
replied,  toasting  the  Duke  as  "  unser 
geliebter  Onkel "  (our  beloved  uncle). 
Everyone  then  repaired  to  the  original 
assembly-room,  where  coffee  was  served 
and  cigarettes  were  handed  round,  the 
ladies  and  all  smoking — a  common  enough 
sight  nowadays,  but  evidently  a  Bavarian 
custom  even  then.  Meanwhile  the  Duke 
and  Duchess  conversed  with  their  guests — 
a  part  of  the  proceedings  I  had  somewhat 
dreaded,  as  etiquette  required  my  offering 
appropriate  birthday  congratulations  in 
German.  Much  to  my  grateful  surprise, 
however,  they  put  me  at  my  ease  by 
addressing  me  in  English. 

Before  leaving,  the  three  daughters 
invited  us  to  make  a  tour  of  inspection 
round  the  castle.  One  of  the  interesting 
peculiarities  of  this  old  monastery  castle 
was  the  smallness  of  many  of  the  rooms, 
which  were  indeed  no  larger  than  cubicles, 
originally  used  as  cells  by  the  monks. 
The  furniture,  though  very  old,  was  not  as 


QUEEN  OF  THE  BELGIANS     245 

a  whole  artistic,  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  pieces  which  were  rather  fine.  There 
was  much  brown-coloured  marble  through- 
out the  building,  hailing  from  a  neighbour- 
ing quarry  at  Kreut,  a  place  noted  for  its 
waters  and  large  sanatorium.  The  picture 
gallery,  consisting  entirely  of  family  por- 
traits by  old  masters,  occupied  much  of 
the  time  and  absorbed  the  interest  of  the 
whole  party,  the  Princes  commenting  on 
the  appearance  of  their  distant  relatives 
and  ancestors,  remarks  which  were  not 
always  as  polite  as  they  might  have  been. 

Adjoining  this  gallery  was  a  room,  the 
Todezimmer  (or  death-chamber),  which  con- 
sisted entirely  of  portraits  of  the  family 
painted  after  death. 

After  this  interesting  but  exhausting 
journey  round  the  picture  gallery,  and  the 
chill  influence  of  the  death  -  chamber,  it 
was  a  relief  to  be  taken  into  the  bright  and 
airy  boudoirs  of  the  Princess  Elisabeth  and 
her  sisters.  Each  room  showed  traces  of 
the  personality  and  characteristics  of  its 
occupant.  They  were  all  prettily  fur- 


246  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

nished,  flowers  and  books  were  every- 
where, but  it  was  in  the  boudoir  of  Bel- 
gium's present  Queen  that  I  noticed  the 
most  works  on  literature,  science,  art,  and 
poetry.  Her  talents  are  known  to  the 
world  to-day,  but  with  the  din  of  battle 
in  its  ears  it  sees  chiefly  those  outstanding 
qualities  of  the  "  ministering  angel "  in 
the  Red  Cross  work  which  the  sterner 
needs  of  war  have  called  forth.  The 
world  is  apt  to  forget  that  music,  art,  and 
literature  claimed  her  for  their  own  in 
happier  times.  She  did  not  play  to  us  the 
day  of  that  luncheon  party  so  many  years 
ago,  but  we  saw  her  violin,  a  deeply  cher- 
ished treasure. 

Later  on,  when  I  saw  more  of  her  girl- 
hood's home  on  the  shores  of  that  beautiful 
lake  amid  the  grandeur  of  the  mountains 
beyond,  I  marvelled  at  the  peaceful 
simplicity  of  her  early  life.  The  clamour 
of  the  busy  outside  world  hardly  penetrated 
to  this  quiet  spot,  where  one  felt  far  away 
from  the  tumult  of  cities,  and  where  even 
a  journey  to  Munich  (the  nearest  town) 


QUEEN  OF  THE  BELGIANS     247 

was  talked  of  by  the  peasants  as  if  moving 
to  another  continent. 

Yet  in  spite  of  the  almost  sleepy  peace 
of  this  mountain  village,  one  felt  that  these 
daughters  of  the  Duke  Charles  Theodore 
were  of  an  intellectual  activity  uncommon 
in  girls  of  their  age.  They  were  all  bright 
and  charming,  and  they  and  my  young 
charges  got  on  excellently  together.  In 
fact,  the  Crown  Prince  quite  lost  his 
heart  to  Princess  Marie  -  Gabrielle,  the 
youngest,  in  spite  of  her  being  senior  to  him 
by  a  few  years.  She  and  her  sisters  had 
exchanged  a  few  little  presents  with  him 
and  the  other  boys.  When,  however,  on  the 
occasion  of  his  getting  his  first  chamois 
(on  a  hunting  expedition  with  the  Duke 
at  Kreut),  she  presented  him  with  a  little 
chamois  head  of  silver  to  hang  on  his 
watch  chain,  his  delight  knew  no  bounds. 
She  had  had  it  engraved  with  her  name 
and  the  date,  and  he  used  to  go  round 
proudly  exhibiting  this  trophy  to  every- 
one, not  once  but  many  times.  There 
was  a  good  deal  of  joking  about  this  one 


248          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

and  only  chamois  which  fell  to  the  Crown 
Prince's  bag,  as  he  happened  to  get  it  on 
the  anniversary  of  a  battle  between  France 
and  Bavaria,  which  the  Bavarians  had 
won.  The  boys  all  went  about  declaring 
it  was  a  good  omen,  symbolizing  victory  in 
future  wars  with  France. 

I  was  so  much  impressed  by  the  Crown 
Prince's  affection  for  and  his  devotion  to 
his  young  cousin  at  the  time  that  I  find  I 
made  the  following  bold  statement  in  my 
diary:  "This  is  Pr.  W.'s  first  love."  He 
certainly  confided  both  to  myself  and  to 
Countess  Keller  that  if  he  could  not  get 
the  Kaiserin  to  again  visit  Tegernsee  the 
following  summer,  he  intended  to  go  there 
with  his  own  money,  travelling  third  class 
in  labourer's  clothes,  and  changing  into 
his  princely  habit  when  he  arrived  at  the 
Schloss. 

This  plan  he  likewise  confided  to  his 
brothers,  for  their  co-operation,  I  suppose  ; 
with  the  result  that,  though  they  were 
willing  to  aid  and  abet  him,  they  had  many 
a  joke  on  love  at  his  expense,  though 


QUEEN  OF  THE  BELGIANS     249 

generally  they  did  not  dare  to  twit  him 
with  it  to  his  face. 

The  Princess  M^rie-Gabrielle  was  indeed 
a  charming  personality,  and  tlm  bby-and- 
girl  affair  was  very  amusing.  Three  years 
later  she  married  her  cousin,  Prince 
Rupprecht  of  Bavaria,  now  the  Crown 
Prince  of  that  state,  of  a  nervous  and  in- 
tolerant temperament,  somewhat  antagon- 
istic to  her  own,  and,  unlike  his  cousins 
of  the  house  of  Wittelsbach,  a  devotee 
of  the  strictest  order  to  Prussian  mili- 
tarism. 

Curiously  enough,  in  later  years  I  met 
Her  Royal  Highness  again  in  far-off  Japan. 
The  Princess,  most  unfortunately,  was  con- 
fined to  her  bed,  arid  I  remember  being 
much  gratified  when  she  aske'd  me  to  visit 
her  sick-room.  Naturally  we  spoke  of  her 
home  at  Tegernsee,  where  both  she  and 
her  young  cousins  spent  such  happy 
days. 

Only  quite  recently  (in  1913)  she  died, 
and  since  then  her  husband,  Prince  Rup- 
precht of  Bavaria,  has  not  seen  much  of 


250          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

the  Queen  of  the  Belgians,  his  sister-in- 
law  and  cousin.  The  war,  of  course,  has 
made  them  bitter  enemies,  and  when  re- 
minded of  her  German  relations  Queen 
Elisabeth  of  Belgium  is  reported  to  have 
said  that  between  her  and  her  people  in 
Bavaria  a  curtain  of  iron  had  fallen.  (She 
had  already  lost  both  parents  and  one 
brother,  the  other  is  fighting  against  her 
husband.) 

One  is  so  constantly  reminded  of  war 
on  every  side  and  at  every  turn  that  I 
cannot  restrain  my  pen  from  jumping 
ahead  to  the  present  day  before  it 
has  finished  with  the  tale  of  that 
visit  to  Tegernsee  in  the  summer  of 
1897. 

There  were  most  lovely  drives  and  walks 
in  the  vicinity,  and  many  a  long  ramble  did 
the  Princes  take. 

Bavaria  being  a  Roman  Catholic  country, 
one  came  upon  wayside  shrines  almost 
everywhere,  even  in  the  loneliest  spots,  some 
of  the  crucifixes  being  beautifully  painted. 
On  moonlight  nights  there  would  often  be 


QUEEN  OF  THE   BELGIANS     251 

music  on  the  lake.  It  was  perfect  to  sit 
out  of  doors  on  a  glorious  summer  even- 
ing, the  heavens  lit  by  moon  and  stars, 
the  ground  at  one's  feet  jewelled  with  the 
pale  emerald  of  glow-worms,  the  dense 
shadows  of  the  pine-clad  mountains  ac- 
centuating their  snow-white  crests  revealed 
by  the  moonlight,  while  the  quaint  strains 
of  Tyrolese  airs  came  floating  over  the 
water. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  twenty-fifth 
anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  Duke's 
Hospital  there  were  great  doings  in  the 
evening — a  grand  display  of  fireworks  such 
as  had  not  been  seen  in  that  quiet  village 
for  many  a  year.  The  grounds  were  lit 
with  fairy  lamps,  and  boats  illuminated  in 
like  manner  patrolled  the  lake,  their  occu- 
pants yodelling  as  they  glided  gently  up 
and  down.  The  Mayor  of  the  little  town 
made  a  speech  from  one  of  the  boats, 
but  from  our  vantage-point  on  the  Castle 
balcony  we  could  hardly  hear  it.  The 
Princes  and  their  cousins  vigorously  waved 
handkerchiefs  in  acknowledgment  of  the 


252  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

acclamations  accorded  them,  and,  after 
the  manner  of  youth,  they  enjoyed  this 
firework  display  far  more  than  the  quiet 
moonlight  nights  where  nature  reigned 
supreme. 


CHAPTER  XI 
CHRISTMAS  AT  POTSDAM 

CHRISTMAS  never  does  come  round 
without  awakening  in  my  mind  re- 
collections of   that  festive  occasion 
as  spent  in  the  German  Emperor's  Palace 
at  Potsdam. 

Adequately  to  depict  the  brilliancy  of  the 
scene  is  beyond  me,  but  the  Christmas 
spirit  which  so  intensely  pervades  the 
whole  German  nation  (almost  every  grown- 
up person,  rich  or  poor,  having  a  Christmas 
tree  as  in  England  every  child  has  a 
stocking)  makes  itself  felt  in  the  peasant's 
cottage,  and  permeates  through  all  ranks, 
finding  its  summit  in  the  luxury  and 
magnificence  of  the  Court  celebrations. 

"  Christmas    is    coming !     Christmas    is 
coming  !  " 
Over  and  over  again  I  began  to  hear 


254          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

these  words  from  my  young  charges. 
From  an  old  jotting  as  far  back  as  the 
middle  of  October  I  see  the  following  : 
"  Furniture  wagons  full  of  Christmas 
presents  are  now  being  unloaded  at  the 
Palace."  This  alone  will  convey  both  the 
enormity  of  the  work  of  preparation,  and 
the  reason  why  the  anticipation  of  Christ- 
mas begins  thus  early  to  make  itself  felt 
in  the  Palace. 

The  Princes'  gifts  to  their  parents,  to 
each  other,  and  to  the  various  other  persons 
whom  they  were  required  to  remember, 
were  a  great  source  of  deliberation  and 
anxiety. 

They  had  little  or  no  idea  of  the  value 
of  money,  and  the  younger  ones  especially 
would  suggest  the  most  absurd  gifts  in 
proportion  to  their  extremely  small  private 
purse.  I  suppose  it  was  in  order  to  teach 
them  relative  financial  values  that  they 
were  kept  so  short  of  pocket-money. 

In  accordance  with  the  general  masculine 
idea,  they  usually  suggested  gifts  of 
jewellery. 


CHRISTMAS  AT  POTSDAM      255 

Prince  Au-Wi  thought  a  diamond  tiara 
would  be  a  suitable  gift  for  a  lady,  and  I 
explained  to  him  that  only  very  rich  people 
could  afford  such  expensive  presents. 

"  Well,  then,"  said  he,  "  a  ring  would  do 
nicely." 

"  But  rings  are  terribly  dear  also,"  I 
informed  him. 

"  Oh,  I  don't  think  so.  I  saw  a  beautiful 
one  in  a  shop  in  Tegernsee,  only  five  marks. 
The  stone  was  enamel.  Or  what  do  you 
say  to  a  necklace  ?  ': 

But  even  to  spend  as  much  as  five  marks 
on  one  person  was  quite  beyond  their 
meagre  pocket-money  at  that  time,  and 
as  they  grew  older  they  came  to  under- 
stand it  better.  They  had  a  great  many 
people  to  remember,  and  I  think  the  inade- 
quate allowance  tended  to  encourage  not 
exactly  meanness,  but  at  any  rate  an 
economy  unnecessary  for  Princes  of  whom 
much  largesse  is  expected. 

After  much  discussion  and  advice  from 
their  elders,  their  gifts  would  generally 
take  the  form  of  something  made  by  them- 


256          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

selves — poker-worked  photo  frames,  little 
pictures  painted  for  the  occasion,  and  so 
forth.  These,  though  of  small  intrinsic 
value,  would  be  greeted  by  the  recipient 
with  effusive  thanks,  and  vows  of  treasuring 
them  for  ever,  from  which  the  Princes  got 
the  impression  that  their  presents  were  of 
far  more  value  than  was  really  the  case. 

Besides  these  preparations,  innumerable 
boxes  would  arrive  containing  warm  gar- 
ments intended  for  distribution  to  the  poor. 
Many  of  these  were  given  by  charitable 
people,  or  were  the  outcome  of  work 
commissioned  and  paid  for  by  the  Kaiserin. 
She  gave  lots  of  orders  to  destitute  ladies 
in  this  way.  A  large  barn-like  room  in  the 
Neues  Palais  was  given  over  to  the  housing 
and  sorting  of  these  manifold  articles. 
I  can  best  compare  it  to  the  large  apart- 
ment in  Friary  Court,  St.  James's  Palace, 
now  devoted  to  storing  the  finished  garments 
of  Queen  Mary's  Needlework  Guild. 

One  morning  early  in  November  I  was 
summoned  by  Her  Majesty  to  help  sort. 
My  first  sight  of  the  room  amazed  me — 


CHRISTMAS  AT  POTSDAM     257 

it  was  a  veritable  warehouse  of  useful 
clothing  of  all  kinds.  The  particular  duty 
assigned  to  me  was  only  that  of  separating 
the  men's  from  the  boys'  socks — the  work 
of  pairing  having  been  done  already.  I 
had  as  my  assistant  Prince  Au-Wi,  who 
happened  to  be  free  that  morning,  and  it 
may  give  some  idea  of  the  multitude  of 
socks  when  I  mention  that  it  took  us 
over  two  hours  for  this  simple  task. 

The  work  of  sorting  occupies  several 
weeks,  and  then  commences  the  further 
task  of  ticketing  the  articles  for  distribution 
among  the  various  hospitals,  homes,  and 
orphanages  for  which  they  are  intended. 
This  is  but  one  phase  of  Christmas — so 
to  speak,  outside  the  Palace — and  is  very 
distinct  from  that  other  phase  within  it, 
of  which  I  will  presently  speak. 

The  moving  spirit  in  this  immense  work, 
who  by  her  own  indefatigable  labours  makes 
one  and  all  strain  to  the  utmost  to  help 
her,  is  the  Empress  herself.  She  is  every- 
where, checking  off  long  lists  and  super- 
intending everything  and  everyone,  like 
17 


258  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

the  good  general-in-chief  she  likes  to  be  in 
such  charitable  undertakings.  That  is  why 
she  is  so  beloved  among  her  poor,  and  in 
the  hospitals,  homes,  and  innumerable 
institutions  in  which  she  is  a  personal 
worker  and  not  a  mere  figure-head. 

A  little  before  Christmas  she  distributes 
these  gifts  in  person.  It  was  my  privilege 
on  several  occasions  to  accompany  her  on 
these  missions,  and  then  one  saw — not  an 
Empress  in  gorgeous  apparel  having  her 
hand  kissed — but  the  tender,  loving  woman 
and  mother  among  suffering  children.  I 
remember  a  Children's  Home,  with  its 
spotlessly  clean  boards,  snowy  white  beds, 
in  which  little  orphans  lay,  most  of  them 
babies  in  arms.  A  great  deal  of  scarlet 
flannel  recalls  itself  to  my  mind,  whether 
as  night-shirts  or  bed- jackets  I  cannot 
remember.  I  can  see  a  beautiful  print 
of  the  "  Good  Shepherd  "  on  the  wall,  and 
the  Empress  with  a  child  in  her  arms 
and  others  holding  on  to  her  skirts.  There 
was  nothing  done  for  effect — one  felt  that ; 
it  was  genuine  pity  and  love  for  the  little 


CHRISTMAS  AT  POTSDAM     259 

ones!  What  excitement  the  whole  visit 
caused  !  What  eager  delight  as  each  toy 
was  given !  What  a  noise  of  blowing 
trumpets  and  whistles  in  abandonment  to 
childish  glee  ! 

After  this — in  itself  a  huge  work — the 
Empress  and  her  ladies  turn  their  atten- 
tion to  the  equally  big  task  of  Christmas 
within  the  Court.  To  begin  with,  the 
Empress  has  quite  a  regiment  of  god- 
children, and  there  used  to  be  an  enormous 
table,  covered  entirely  with  silver  cups 
and  spoons,  put  aside  for  these  alone. 
Then  there  were  rows  and  rows  of  books, 
among  which  I  was  asked  to  select  some 
English  ones  as  suitable  gifts  by  the 
Kaiserin.  And  here  her  wonderful  memory 
is  seen  to  its  greatest  advantage.  She 
will  go  through  list  after  list,  selecting  for 
this  one  and  that,  making  each  a  personal 
matter— "That  will  do  for  little  May," 
or  "  That  child  is  too  old  for  this  gift," 
and  so  on.  She  is  moreover  always  careful, 
by  keeping  the  old  lists  before  her,  never 
to  duplicate  her  present  the  following  year. 


26o  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

Then  came  a  selection  of  gifts  for  the 
numerous  Court  servants,  and  finally  her 
own  particular  presents  to  other  Royalties, 
relations,  and  friends.  No  one  can  imagine 
the  weeks  of  fatigue  and  work  this  all 
means  to  her :  a  task  she  never  seems  to 
wish  to  hand  on  to  her  ladies — all  must 
bear  the  personal  touch.  As  an  example 
of  this,  the  Mistress  of  the  Bedchamber 
used  to  inquire  what  each  one  of  us  par- 
ticularly wanted.  I  was  anxious  for  a 
ring,  not  knowing  that  this  was  the  one 
form  of  jewellery  Her  Majesty  avoided 
giving.  After  this  was  explained  to  me, 
I  therefore  chose  a  tie-pin  ;  but  the  Kaiserin 
suggested  as  more  useful  a  brooch,  having 
probably  noticed  that  I  was  possessed  of 
but  a  limited  number.  I  must  confess 
that  not  only  do  I  treasure  this  beautiful 
brooch,  but  I  have  since  found  it  most 
useful.  There  is  also  an  interesting  episode 
connected  with  it.  A  few  years  afterwards, 
I  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  a  great  deal 
of  my  jewellery,  a  burglar  putting  me 
under  chloroform  while  I  was  asleep. 


CHRISTMAS  AT  POTSDAM     261 

Curiously  enough,  however,  he  took  all 
my  jewellery  except  this  little  diamond 
brooch,  for  which  I  felt  very  grateful. 

In  Germany,  the  Christmas  feast  is  kept 
on  Christmas  Eve,  the  24th  December,  and 
not  on  the  25th  as  in  England. 

Some  days  previous  to  this,  the  Kaiserin, 
accompanied  by  some  of  her  children  and 
by  most  of  the  ladies  and  gentlemen,  goes 
down  regularly  into  what  is  called  the 
Muschel-Saal,  to  decorate  the  various 
Christmas  trees.  I  took  no  part  in  these 
decorations,  as  I  had  other  duties  during 
that  time.  But  I  went  with  one  of  the 
ladies  on  a  Christmas  shopping  expedition 
for  her,  for  the  purpose  of  buying  pre- 
sents. The  Royal  carriage  was  well  tucked 
away  round  the  corner,  no  one  was  to 
know  who  the  shoppers  were.  What  fun 
we  had  !  I  remember  how  my  companion 
rubbed  the  apples  like  any  good  German 
"  Hausfrau  " — as  tf  to  get  circulation  into 
their  cheeks,  and  make  them  if  possible 
extra  red  and  shiny  to  hang  on  the 
Christmas  trees.  Apples  and  oranges  are 


262  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

in  great  demand  for  this  purpose  in 
Germany.  On  another  occasion,  when  the 
Kaiserin  and  many  of  the  Court  were  ill 
with  an  attack  of  influenza,  I  went  shop- 
ping alone  for  her.  It  took  me  from  2  till 
8  p.m.,  and  so  great  was  the  amount  of 
purchases  I  had  to  get  through,  and  so 
completely  worn  out  were  the  pair  of 
horses  I  started  out  with,  that  they  had 
to  be  sent  back  and  replaced  by  a  fresh 
pair  from  the  Palace. 

Well  do  I  recall  each  incident  of  that 
first  Christmas  spent  in  the  Court.  In 
the  morning  I  helped  one  of  the  ladies-in- 
waiting  to  divide  the  nuts,  cakes,  and  apples 
to  be  given  to  her  lackeys  and  servants. 
It  is  customary  for  each  lady-in-waiting 
to  have  her  own  private  tree  in  her  sitting- 
room,  and  decorate  another  for  her  im- 
mediate attendants.  My  own  presents  to 
servants  amounted  to  eighteen  in  number. 
I  was  next  called  upon  to  help  another  of 
the  ladies  in  the  Blue  Room.  There  I 
found  two  long  tables  set  for  sixty  people. 
I  was  asked  to  put  three  apples,  two 


CHRISTMAS  AT  POTSDAM     263 

huge  cakes  of  Pfeffer  Kuchen,  or  ginger- 
bread, an  orange,  and  three  other  varieties 
of  cakes  on  each  plate.  The  room  was 
crowded  with  various  other  presents, 
designated,  I  afterwards  learned,  for  the 
servants  in  immediate  attendance  on  the 
Kaiser  and  Raise rin  and  their  family. 
I  then  lunched  quietly  alone,  and,  as 
ordered,  was  in  evening  dress  by  three 
o'clock. 

Punctually  at  that  hour  one  of  the 
ladies  fetched  me,  and  together  we  pro- 
ceeded to  the  Blue  Room,  where  we  found 
sixty  servants  (both  men  and  women) 
ranged  up  in  line  and  awaiting  the  gifts 
which  they  were  presently  to  receive 
from  the  Kaiserin  herself.  These  servants 
attach  an  exaggerated  importance  to  the 
various  positions  they  hold.  Were  I  called 
upon,  without  previous  knowledge,  to 
select  the  highest  in  rank,  I  should  imme- 
diately do  so  by  their  physical  weight  and 
rotundity  !  One  newly  installed  lackey  at 
that  time  had  a  face  remarkably  like  a 
pancake,  so  the  Empress  declared.  He 


264          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

certainly  was  abnormally  fat,  even  for  a 
German  lackey,  and  I  never  could  trust 
myself  to  look  at  him  at  meals  as  he 
solemnly  took  up  his  stand  behind  a  chair. 
On  one  occasion,  when  acting  as  footman 
to  me,  the  carriage  drove  up  to  the 
Hohenzollern  entrance  (the  big  one),  where 
there  was  always  a  crowd  of  men-servants. 
This  fat  man  jumped  down  from  the  box 
and  took  off  my  rug,  but  in  doing  so  he 
slipped  and  fell  backwards,  rolling  right 
over  his  head  like  a  ball  in  a  most  queer 
fashion.  Apparently  he  was  somewhat 
hurt,  for  I  heard  a  puffing  groan,  followed 
by  suppressed  laughter  from  the  footmen 
all  round.  I  managed  to  remain  silent 
until  reaching  my  room — but  it  was  not 
easy !  Perhaps  this  corpulence  may 
partly  be  accounted  for  by  the  unwritten 
law  that  champagnes  and  wines  left  un- 
finished by  any  person  are  always  con- 
sidered the  rightful  perquisite  of  the  lackey 
in  attendance.  This  fact  I  discovered 
to  my  cost.  Not  caring  to  drink  wine 
myself,  I  imposed  a  compulsory  and  un- 


CHRISTMAS  AT  POTSDAM     265 

willing  teetotalism  on  my  particular  men- 
servants — a  discovery  I  did  not  make 
until  later,  when  one  of  the  ladies  laugh- 
ingly acquainted  me  of  the  fact,  and  in- 
formed me  that  for  this  reason  I  was 
probably  most  unpopular. 

Soon  afterwards,  the  whole  of  the  Court 
ladies  and  gentlemen  being  assembled,  the 
Kaiserin  entered,  followed  by  the  six 
Princes  (most  of  them  in  full  uniform), 
and  also  the  little  Princess.  The  boys, 
with  the  ladies  and  their  governors,  first 
proceeded  to  sing  some  carols — among 
them  that  favourite  "  Stille  Nacht,"  which 
is  always  sung  on  Christmas  Eve,  after 
which  the  Kaiserin  distributed  the  presents 
in  person,  assisted  by  her  sons.  She  had 
a  kindly  word — appropriate  to  the  occasion 
— for  each  recipient,  and  there  was  a  beam 
of  very  real  gratitude  on  each  servant's  face. 

The  proceedings  lasted  about  an  hour ; 
and,  after  the  Kaiserin  had  gone,  the 
servants  went  too,  bearing  with  them 
their  presents  and  their  various  apples, 
oranges,  and  cakes.  For  some  reason, 


266  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

or  other,  there  were  never  any  from  the 
Royal  kitchen  among  the  recipients,  these 
servants  never  being  seen. 

During  the  whole  of  this  time  the 
Emperor  used  to  be  away  from  the  Palace 
— walking  through  the  streets  incognito, 
accompanied  only  by  one  or  two  gentle- 
men, and  distributing  his  well-known 
Christmas  largesse  among  his  people. 
There  is  a  story,  which  I  happen  to  know 
bears  good  credence,  that  on  one  occasion 
he  came  across  a  sentry  enjoying  a  nap. 
When  this  guilty  soldier  awoke,  instead  of 
finding  himself  under  arrest,  he  saw  the 
glint  of  a  twenty-mark  gold  piece  (with  his 
Emperor's  head  uppermost)  on  the  muzzle 
of  his  rifle  !  This  silent  rebuke  conveyed 
the  seriousness  of  his  offence  to  the  soldier's 
mind  far  more  than  any  ordinary  military 
punishment  could  have  done. 

After  the  Bescherung,  or  presentation  of 
gifts,  I  returned  to  my  room,  and  one  of 
the  Princes  brought  me  a  piece  of  mistletoe, 
which  the  Kaiserin  had  sent  me,  with  a 
message  that  I  was  to  wear  it. 


CHRISTMAS  AT  POTSDAM     267 

'  We  are  all  to  meet  again  as  soon  as 
papa  returns,"  he  added,  jumping  up  and 
down,  first  on  one  foot  and  then  on  the 
other,  in  the  joy  of  anticipation. 

We  had  not  long  to  wait,  and  presently 
were  all  summoned  to  the  Kaiser's  writing- 
room,  where — contrary  to  usual  etiquette 
— the  Imperial  couple  were  awaiting  us, 
together  with  all  the  Royal  Family.  I  can 
recall  that  scene  now,  as  the  first  sight  of 
it  impressed  itself  on  my  mind. 

The  tone  of  the  room  was  a  deep  red, 
the  rich  satin  curtains  being  of  this  hue, 
matched  by  the  chairs  and  sofas  ;  while  a 
large  standard  lamp  by  the  writing-table 
shed  a  warm  crimson  glow  over  the  scene. 
Four  of  the  boys  were  round  their  father, 
while  the  younger  ones  clustered  round 
their  mother's  chair.  A  happy  and  united 
family  they  looked,  and  indeed  at  this 
time  they  really  were. 

Then  they  sang  carols,  in  which  the 
governors  took  part.  The  Crown  Prince 
recited  the  story  of  the  Babe  of  Bethlehem. 
Then  another  carol,  and  the  next  boy, 


268          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

Prince  Fritz,  went  on  with  the  tale  of  our 
Lord's  birth,  Prince  Adalbert  concluding 
it,  after  another  carol  had  been  sung  in 
between. 

"  Mamma,  mamma,  let's  have  dinner 
and  get  to  the  Christmas  tree,"  was  the 
children's  universal  cry,  after  getting  suc- 
cessfully through  the  carol-singing. 

Then  all  the  ladies  and  gentlemen, 
including  myself,  hastened  to  the  waiting- 
room  off  the  large  dining-hall  used  on 
Christmas  Eve,  adjoining  the  Muschel-Saal, 
which  contained  the  trees. 

The  Christmas  dinner  was  confined  en- 
tirely to  the  Court  circle  and  included  no 
outside  guests.  All  were  in  the  full-dress 
uniform  of  their  various  regiments,  the 
whole  making  up  a  brilliant  and  imposing 
display  of  gold  braid  and  orders. 

The  table  was  beautifully  decorated. 
There  was  a  most  magnificent  piece  of 
silver  in  the  centre.  A  special  dinner- 
service  was  used,  and  the  sparkle  of  cut 
glass  and  silver,  together  with  the  masses 
of  flowers,  made  the  whole  quite  a  pretty 


CHRISTMAS  AT  POTSDAM     269 

sight.  I  was  glad  to  welcome  among 
many  strange  dishes  my  old  friend 
Christmas  plum-pudding,  though  I  noticed 
that  few  others  seemed  to  really  appreci- 
ate it. 

The  dinner  was  a  very  merry  one,  not  in 
the  least  formal,  the  Kaiser  joking  with  his 
immediate  neighbours,  and  everyone  being 
imbued  with  the  same  spirit.  At  its  con- 
clusion he  gave  a  signal,  and  one  of  his 
fagers  rang  a  bell  and  flung  open  wide  the 
door  which  led  to  the  Muschel-Saal.  At 
this,  the  Imperial  couple  rose,  followed  by 
the  ladies  and  all  the  rest  of  the  company. 
The  Princes  —  and  the  little  Princess 
especially  —  showed  tremendous  excite- 
ment ;  for  the  long  -  expected  moment, 
dreamt  of  for  so  many  weeks  past,  had  at 
length  arrived,  and  they  were  now  going 
to  see  the  Christmas  trees  in  all  their 
finished  glory.  I  had  had  nothing  to  do 
with  the  decoration  of  these,  and  therefore 
they  were  all  the  greater  surprise  V^and 
delight  to  me. 

Shall  I  ever  forget  that  wondrous  scene  ? 


270          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

The  Muschel-Saal  itself  is  one  of  the  sights 
of  Potsdam,  on  view  to  tourists  when  the 
Court  is  not  in  residence.  This  huge 
apartment,  built  by  Frederick  the  Great, 
and  used  for  large  Court  functions,  has  its 
walls  entirely  inset  with  every  variety  of 
shell  (as  the  word  "  Muschel  "  implies),  the 
general  effect  being  still  further  heightened 
by  pillars — at  intervals — of  many- coloured 
and  beautifully  polished  stones,  those 
most  readily  recalling  themselves  to  my 
mind  being  the  blue  of  lapis  lazuli  and  the 
green  of  malachite.  Picture  these  as  they 
caught  the  light,  like  a  gleaming  kaleido- 
scope of  myriad  colours,  and  some  idea 
of  the  effect  may  be  gained.  Along  the 
whole  length  of  the  hall  was  an  imposing 
array  of  Christmas  trees,  ten  in  all,  gradu- 
ating in  size  according  to  the  age  and 
importance  of  those  in  whose  honour  they 
were  erected. 

Lit  by  a  thousand  candles,  the  green  of 
the  foliage  glistening  with  hoar-frost  and 
threads  of  silver,  an  angel  with  outspread 
wings  surmounting  each ;  to  see  these 


CHRISTMAS  AT  POTSDAM     271 

Christmas  trees  was  like  a  glimpse  into 
Fairyland. 

The  Kaiser's  was  the  largest.  Standing 
on  red  carpet,  on  which  were  wonderful 
figures  representing  the  Holy  Family,  the 
Wise  Men,  and  so  on,  this  immense  tree, 
with  its  spreading  branches,  towered  over 
the  rest  as  if  to  proclaim  its  sovereignty 
over  them  all. 

Then  came  the  Kaiserin's,  and  all  the 
children's,  each  one  smaller  in  size  according 
to  age.  At  the  end  came  again  a  large  one, 
for  all  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the 
Court. 

I  turned  my  eyes  from  the  trees  to  see 
rows  and  rows  of  tables,  placed  along 
each  side  of  the  wall.  Two  specially  large 
ones  stood  out  apart,  and  the  costliness 
of  the  gifts  they  held  beggars  description. 
These  were  those  of  the  Imperial  couple, 
and  contained,  I  imagined,  many  gifts 
from  crowned  heads. 

Whether  the  fact  of  its  being  my  first 
Christmas,  and  that  Their  Majesties  prob- 
ably realized  how  bewildered  I  must  feel 


272  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

in  the  midst  of  such  gorgeous  surroundings, 
or  whether  it  was  out  of  courtesy  to  a 
stranger,  I  do  not  know,  but  contrary  to 
all  etiquette  I  found  myself  the  first  to 
receive  attention.  I  was  told  the  Kaiser 
wished  to  speak  to  me.  He  was  standing 
some  distance  away,  beside  quite  a  large 
table  covered  with  presents. 

"  There  you  are,"  he  said,  waving  his 
hand  over  it. 

I  was  so  mystified  did  not  understand 
what  he  meant,  and  politely  said  so. 

"  Why,  those  are  all  for  you  !  "  he  ex- 
plained airily,  pointing  to  this  big  table. 

"  I  have  never  heard  of  anyone  having 
so  many  presents,"  was  my  only  reply, 
surprised  and  overwhelmed  as  I  was  by 
the  munificent  unexpectedness  of  it. 

He  seemed  quite  delighted  at  my  un- 
mistakable pleasure.  I  learned  subse- 
quently that  not  only  Their  Majesties,  but 
all  the  ladies  and  some  of  the  gentlemen 
in  the  Court,  had  combined  with  true 
warm-heartedness  to  extend  an  extra  wel- 
come to  me — a  stranger  in  their  midst.  I 


CHRISTMAS  AT  POTSDAM     273 

proceeded  forthwith  to  try  and  take  in  at 
first  glance  as  many  of  my  presents  as 
was  possible. 

Their  gifts  to  me  revealed  much  kind 
forethought.  The  Kaiser,  among  other 
smaller  presents,  gave  me  a  large  silver 
comb,  which  he  had  sent  for  (he  told  me) 
from  England,  and  which  the  box  proved 
to  me.  He  had  also  ordered  a  little  tartan 
silk  photograph  frame  which,  he  remarked, 
would  bring  back  home  to  me.  I  am  not 
Scotch,  but  the  kindly  thought  was  near 
enough.  Among  the  Kaiserin's  presents 
was  a  beautiful  fan,  which  I  sorely  needed, 
as  etiquette  obliged  me  to  carry  one  at 
every  meal  where  Royalty  was  present. 

Everyone  at  the  dinner  that  night  had 
a  table,  or  part  of  a  very  long  one,  assigned 
to  himself  or  herself,  and  crowded  with 
gifts.  I  must  not  forget  to  mention  that 
each  had  its  red  apples,  oranges,  nuts, 
and  cakes — inseparable  from  true  German 
Christmas  festivities,  and  which  one  is 
supposed  to  carry  away  with  one. 

I  had  scarcely  time  to  examine  my  gifts 
18 


274          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

before  the  Princes  begged  me  to  come  and 
see  their  tables.  After  that,  there  was  a 
general  inspection  all  round,  and  I  learned, 
to  my  surprise,  that  one  did  not  carry  away 
one's  gifts  that  night,  nor  indeed  for  several 
days  afterwards — everyone  spending  the 
intervening  evenings  by  further  visits  to 
the  Muschel-Saal  for  examination  at  leisure 
of  the  manifold  gifts. 

I  think  we  were  all  glad  of  an  early  dis- 
missal that  night,  for  the  excitement  of 
the  evening  following  on  the  weeks  of  hard 
work  had  left  everyone  pretty  tired  out. 

And  thus  ended  such  a  Christmas  as  I 
can  never  forget,  for  not  only  will  the 
brilliancy  of  the  whole  scene  ever  remain  in 
my  mind,  but  through  it  all  came  the 
thought  of  how  truly  the  Christmas  spirit 
linked  together  with  a  common  bond  both 
monarch  and  peasant  alike. 

I  have  taken  this  description  of  my  first 
German  Christmas  in  the  year  1895  from 
some  old  jottings  I  made  then,  and  which  it 
hastaken  me  sometime  to  decipher  and  piece 
together  in  the  above  words.  I  have  been 


CHRISTMAS  AT  POTSDAM     275 

living  so  much  in  the  past  while  doing  it 
that  I  awake  to  the  present  with  a  rude 
shock. 

Can  I  picture  their  Christmas  of  1915, 
and  the  changes  wrought  there  by  the 
passing  of  time  and  the  coming  of  war  ? 
The  festivities  will  have  been  of  the 
simplest ;  for  in  thousands  of  homes 
sorrow  and  suffering  reign  where  before 
all  was  happiness. 

Everywhere  there  are  wounded  soldiers, 
and  the  trains  which  of  old  carried  heavy 
freights  of  Christmas  gifts  are  now  laden 
with  heavier  and  sadder  burdens. 

The  Christmas  dinner  at  the  Palace  too. 
Those  generals  and  colonels  in  their  brilliant 
uniforms  cannot  be  present ;  they  have 
sterner  work  to  do,  and  their  greatest 
Christmas  feast  will  be  a  victory  involving 
blood  and  tears. 


CHAPTER    XII 
THE  COURT  HOSPITAL 

GRADUALLY  the  strain  of  Court 
life  began  to  tell  on  my  health.  I 
had  foregone  my  holiday  for  the 
first  two  years,  and  was  supposed  to  have 
had  a  good  long  one  during  the  spring  of 
the  year  1898.  I  had  intensely  looked 
forward  to  spending  it  in  England,  not 
having  seen  my  people  for  nearly  three 
years  ;  and  great,  therefore,  was  my  dis- 
appointment when,  owing  to  the  Kaiserin's 
own  ill-health  and  retirement  to  Homburg- 
vor-der-Hohe  for  rest,  I  was  asked  to 
postpone  my  holiday  and  take  charge  of 
the  Princes  during  her  absence. 

I  could  not  do  otherwise  than  obey, 
but  I  think  the  added  strain,  when  I  had 
so  much  looked  forward  to  rest  and  change, 
had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  my  illness. 


THE  COURT  HOSPITAL       277 

I  finally  became  so  ill  that  I  had  to 
be  removed  to  the  Augusta  Hospital,  in 
close  proximity  to  the  Berlin  Palace,  where 
any  courtiers  who  fell  ill  were  usually 
packed  off  at  once.  The  Imperial  couple 
and  their  children  were  the  only  people 
permitted  to  be  nursed  in  the  Palace  itself, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Princes'  governors, 
who  were  allowed,  if  their  indisposition 
was  not  too  serious,  to  keep  their  rooms 
within  the  Schloss.  To  me,  this  was  only 
another  small  proof  of  the  respect  paid  to 
militarism ;  but  even  they,  if  suffering 
from  the  common  cold,  would  be  banished 
until  such  time  as  they  had  completely 
recovered. 

The  Kaiserin's  special  medical  adviser 
at  that  time  was  a  Dr.  Zuncker,  and  he 
was  always  in  attendance.  "  He  is  a  regular 
old  woman,"  was  the  definition  given  to 
me  by  one  of  the  Kaiser's  gentlemen. 
His  way  of  curing  the  Princes'  colds  was  to 
order  them  a  boiling  hot  bath,  after  which 
they  would  be  placed  between  endless 
blankets,  until  the  cold  steamed  itself  out 


278          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

of  them,  the  princely  patient  protesting  at 
frequent  intervals  that  he  was  quite  suffi- 
ciently baked  and  could  stand  it  no  longer. 

In  the  case  of  more  serious  illness,  the 
Princes  were  completely  isolated  in  their 
own  rooms  in  the  wing  of  the  particular 
palace  where  the  attack  overtook  them. 
Should  the  disease  be  of  an  infectious 
nature,  an  immediate  exit  was  made  by  the 
Kaiser  and  the  rest  of  the  family  to  another 
palace,  the  Empress  remaining  behind  with 
her  beloved  child.  When  one  of  the  boys 
had  diphtheria,  she  herself  took  an  active 
part  in  the  nursing,  together  with  one  of 
the  governors. 

I  remember  Prince  Adalbert's  having 
been  left  alone  for  some  time  once,  when 
he  was  ill,  and  getting  rather  tired  of  his 
own  company,  he  boldly  wrote  a  little  line 
asking  me  to  come  and  sit  with  him,  and 
his  note  expressed  a  lively  terror  that  his 
governor  would  be  angry  with  him  for 
having  done  so. 

One  thing  about  the  Berlin  Palace  that 
struck  me  as  being  far  from  healthy  was 


THE  COURT  HOSPITAL      279 

the  arrangement  of  the  double  windows 
in  each  room,  together  with  a  thick  baize 
cloth  across  the  window  to  exclude  the  cold 
air.  Of  course  the  immense  size  and  lofti- 
ness of  the  rooms  made  them  difficult 
to  heat,  except  by  steam,  which  was  the 
usual  method,  and  very  hot  and  oppressive 
the  rooms  sometimes  were  in  winter. 

German  curative  methods  seemed  to 
me  rather  brutal.  Doctors  never  prepared 
one  for  being  hurt,  as  they  do  in  England  ; 
while  the  Court  dentist  would  take  out  a 
nerve  without  doing  anything  to  deaden 
the  pain,  and  one  would  be  expected  to  go 
into  service  immediately  afterwards.  This 
happened  to  me  once,  and  as  I  had  foregone 
a  meal  to  keep  the  dentist's  appointment, 
I  naturally  felt  rather  aggrieved  at  my 
long  hours  of  duty  that  day.  I  remember 
I  hated  that  dentist ;  he  was  a  big  fat  man 
of  a  coarse-looking  type,  very  celebrated, 
his  charge  being  seven  guineas  per  tooth. 
Not  that  I  paid  him  anything — we  had  all 
such  attendance  free. 

The  Augusta    Hospital,  where    I   spent 


28o          POTSDAM  PRINCES 

ten  weary  weeks  in  bed,  and  many  more 
half  in  bed  and  half  out,  was,  I  think, 
named  after  the  Empress  Augusta,  grand- 
mother of  the  present  Kaiser  and  wife  of 
the  old  Emperor  William  I.  There  was, 
of  course,  no  charge  to  anyone  connected 
with  the  Court,  but  I  believe  there  were 
very  high  fees  to  other  patients,  who  went 
there  as  in  these  days  one  would  go  to  a 
nursing  home.  The  sisters,  nurses,  and 
probationers  all  had  to  prove  their  noble 
birth  and  pledge  themselves  to  a  life  of 
celibacy  before  they  were  allowed  to  take 
up  their  vocation  of  nursing  in  this  particular 
hospital.  One  of  them,  quite  a  young 
girl,  who  was  my  special  attendant,  con- 
fided to  me  that  since  she  came  there 
she  had  fallen  in  love  with  a  young  officer, 
and  implored  me  to  use  my  influence  with 
the  Kaiserin  to  release  her  from  this 
pledge  of  never  marrying.  I  promised 
to  do  what  I  could  as  soon  as  I  returned 
to  the  Palace,  but  as  I  gradually  became 
worse  and  worse,  I  never  did  return,  and 
consequently  was  not  able  to  help  her, 


THE  COURT  HOSPITAL       281 

I  hope  the  poor  girl  has  since  helped  herself 
by  pleading  for  release  from  her  vows — 
it  was  not  as  if  she  were  a  Roman  Catholic 
nun — and  I  hope  that  she  has  been  happily 
married  to  her  officer  these  many  years. 

I  had  a  little  room  to  myself,  empty  and 
unadorned.  One  thing  ever  recalls  itself 
to  my  mind,  the  constant  sweeping  and 
polishing  of  its  bare  boards  by  the  little 
nurses.  The  Kaiserin  was  very  kind  in 
often  coming  to  see  me,  but  when  news 
came  of  her  intended  visits,  although  my 
floor  had  been  scrubbed  and  rubbed  and 
polished  that  morning,  it  would  be  scrubbed 
and  rubbed  and  polished  again  in  feverish 
haste  and  frenzy,  it  being  the  rule  to  greet 
Royalty  with  ultra-cleanliness  in  every  way. 

I  like  being  clean  as  much  as  anyone, 
but  this  extra  floor-rubbing  meant  moving 
my  bed,  moving  my  bed  meant  moving  me, 
and  that  caused  me  intense  pain.  Then  I 
must  have  clean  sheets,  clean  night-dress, 
even  though  both  were  changed  that  morn- 
ing ;  and  I  must  needs  be  washed  and 
brushed  and  combed.  Want  of  thorough- 


282  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

ness  is  not  a  German  failing  !  I  longed  to 
be  left  alone  to  endure  my  pain  in  peace  and 
quiet,  noise  was  agony  to  my  nerve-racked 
frame ;  but  in  mistaken  kindness  everybody 
would  send  me  ceaseless  letters,  telegrams, 
bouquets.  Then  sometimes  the  Princes 
would  visit  me,  which  also  caused  great 
excitement  and  preparation  on  the  part  of 
the  sisters. 

These  poor  little  sisters  seemed  to  be 
worked  off  their  feet,  and  a  good  deal  of 
church  attendance  devolved  upon  them 
during  their  few  spare  hours.  Their  nobility 
of  birth  and  natural  refinement  was  ex- 
pressed in  every  detail  of  their  nursing  ; 
they  were  most  gentle  and  polite,  and 
the  meals  were  cooked  and  served  in  a  very 
dainty  manner. 

In  the  room  opposite  mine  was  a  dying 
girl,  whose  case  was  especially  painful  to 
me.  The  only  child  of  rich  parents  out  of 
sympathy  with  each  other,  she  was  the  one 
link  that  kept  them  together.  She  often 
fainted  away  and  nearly  always  had  great 
difficulty  in  breathing ;  it  was  painful  to 


THE  COURT  HOSPITAL       283 

hear  her.  Once  her  father  was  alone  with 
her  when  she  had  one  of  these  fainting  fits, 
and,  completely  losing  his  head,  he  fetched 
some  smelling-salts  and  poured  them  down 
her  throat,  which  eventually  killed  her. 
Listening  to  her  struggle  for  breath  during 
the  last  day  or  two  before  she  died  did  not 
have  a  good  effect  on  my  nerves,  and  I  would 
continually  hear  that  death-rattle  ringing  in 
my  ears  for  days  and  days,  long  after  it  was 
all  over. 

Small  wonder,  then,  that  I  grew  really 
seriously  ill.  The  Kaiserin  even  postponed 
a  visit  to  Wiesbaden  on  my  account,  and 
telegraphed  to  London  for  my  sister.  By 
the  Emperor's  command,  a  speaking-tube 
was  installed  outside  my  room  connecting 
direct  to  the  Palace,  so  that  they  might 
have  the  latest  bulletins  as  to  my  con- 
dition. I  must  say  they  were  kindness 
itself,  and  could  not  have  done  more.  I 
had  endless  doctors — in  fact,  I  remember 
six  at  one  visit  :  the  Kaiser's  own  special 
physician,  the  Kaiserin's,  the  Empress 
Frederick's,  two  specialists,  and  the  doctor 


284  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

belonging  to  the  hospital.  Yet  none  of 
them  seemed  to  do  me  any  good,  and  I  was 
incapable  of  any  effort  on  my  own  part 
to  get  better.  They  did  not  seem  to 
realize  that  if  only  I  had  been  allowed  com- 
plete rest  and  freedom  from  all  the  fuss 
that  went  on  daily,  the  little  strength 
I  still  possessed  would  remain  in  reserve 
and  help  towards  my  recovery.  At  the 
same  time,  thinking  death  was  approaching, 
they  did  all  they  could  to  comfort  me. 
One  of  the  sisters  placed  a  crucifix  in  my 
hand,  and  uttered  a  beautiful  prayer  over 
me. 

However,  my  time  had  not  yet  come. 
On  the  arrival  of  my  sister  for  whom  they 
had  telegraphed,  I  am  glad  to  say  that  I 
was  roused  to  a  more  hopeful  view  of  life ; 
and  being  assured  by  her  that  I  was  not 
likely  to  die,  I  began  to  struggle  against 
my  weakness.  It  was  then  that  the  English 
chaplain,  Mr.  Fry,  who  first  conceived  the 
idea  that  if  only  I  could  get  home  to  my 
native  land  I  might  recover,  came  to  see  me. 
I^can^never^forget  what  a  help  he  was  to 


THE  COURT  HOSPITAL       285 

me  in  those  sad  days.  He  had  been 
called  in,  in  order  to  administer  the  Holy 
Sacrament.  Well  do  I  remember  the 
cheerful  breath  he  seemed  to  bring  in  from 
the  outside  world.  The  whole  atmosphere 
of  the  hospital — though  one  of  intense 
kindness — was  shrouded  with  death  and 
sorrow  ;  the  lives  of  these  little  ladies 
who  nursed  me  were  so  terribly  solemn, 
so  sad,  and  so  stringent.  They  could  only 
believe  I  was  dying,  and  do  their  best  to 
prepare  me  for  the  end. 

Then  a  new  doctor  came  to  see  me,  a 
Professor  Ewald,  since  dead.  It  was  he 
who  maintained  that  I  should  never  recover 
unless  I  could  return  to  my  native  heath. 
He  discussed  this  with  the  Kaiserin,  but 
she  feared  the  long  journey  for  me  too  much 
to  consent  to  his  project. 

One  day,  however,  he  came  in  and  told 
me  she  had  consented  to  let  me  go,  provided 
I  was  able  to  perform  the  feat  of  walking 
round  my  room  just  once. 

Seeing  that  a  walk  round  my  room  was 
an  absolute  physical  impossibility  for  me, 


286  POTSDAM   PRINCES 

he  gently  helped  me  out  of  bed,  and  sup- 
ported by  his  strong  right  arm,  I  was  liter- 
ally half  dragged  and  half  carried  round  my 
room,  thus  earning  the  permission  to  be 
sent  back  to  my  dear  homeland.  I  think 
Professor  Ewald  was  the  only  man  I  met  in 
Germany  whose  goodness  of  heart  so  broad- 
ened his  ideas  of  perfect  obedience  to  a  Royal 
command  as  to  almost  break  the  letter  of 
it.  I  never  saw  him  again,  as  he  was  not 
attached  to  the  Court,  but  from  that 
moment  I  began  to  get  better,  in  joyful 
anticipation  of  once  more  seeing  my  dear 
ones  from  whom  I  had  been  parted  so 
long. 

No  time  was  lost  in  making  arrangements 
for  my  journey  to  England.  Unfortunately, 
I  was  much  too  weak  to  either  stand  or 
walk  even  a  few  steps,  but  I  am  glad  to  say 
they  did  not  make  me  wait  until  I  was 
strong  enough  to  do  so. 

Lying  comfortably  on  a  sofa,  I  was 
hoisted,  couch  and  all,  into  a  long  carriage 
made  of  glass,  somewhat  after  the  style  of 
a  funeral  hearse  ;  and  knowing  that  it  had 


THE  COURT  HOSPITAL       287 

been  specially  made  for  me  removed  the 
idea  of  ill-omen  and  the  curious  impression 
of  being  present  at  one's  own  funeral ; 
so  this  did  not  overcome  me,  as  it  otherwise 
might  have  done.  In  such  manner,  with 
my  sister  driving  behind  in  one  carriage, 
and  the  Mistress  of  the  Bedchamber  in 
another,  did  I  make  my  way  through  the 
crowded  streets  of  Berlin.  By  the  Kaiser's 
order,  I  was  to  use  his  own  special  entrance 
to  the  station.  Seeing  these  gates  opened, 
the  townsfolk  thought  their  Emperor  must 
be  coming,  consequently  the  crowd  was 
enormous  by  the  time  I  arrived  there  in  my 
glass  coabh.  Though  expecting  the  Kaiser, 
I  do  not  think  they  were  very  disappointed 
at  the  unique  sight  I  must  have  presented 
of  a  living  corpse  lying  in  state  (naturally 
I  was  deathly  pale),  surrounded  by  flowers 
in  my  funereal-looking  glass  equipage. 

The  Emperor's  chamberlain  was  there  to 
meet  me,  and  to  direct  my  being  com- 
fortably placed  into  the  railway  carriage. 

Arrangements  had  been  made  for  this  to 
be  shunted  and  attached  to  the  necessary 


288  POTSDAM  PRINCES 

trains  in  order  that  there  might  be  no 
change  until  I  reached  Flushing.  More 
bouquets  were  presented  to  me,  and  several 
gold  pieces  were  given  me  to  use  as  tips  on 
the  journey,  for  the  various  stationmasters 
who  had  been  instructed  to  inquire  as  to 
my  progress  and  needs  wherever  the  train 
stopped. 

Thus  I  left  Germany,  intending  to  return 
should  my  health  permit.  After  many 
months'  holiday,  I  was  commanded  to 
visit  the  Kaiserin  at  Windsor,  with  the 
idea  of  returning  with  her  to  the  Father- 
land ;  but  being  still  rather  weak,  my 
doctor  would  not  allow  me  to  continue  the 
work,  and  I  had  to  definitely  resign  my 
appointment  at  the  German  Court. 

They  continued  writing  to  me  long  after 
I  had  left,  the  Kaiserin  put  me  on  her 
Christmas  list,  and  many  kind  letters 
containing  information  as  to  the  Princes 
and  other  Court  news  reached  me  from 
the  ladies-in-waiting.  Thus  I  learnt  that 
no  English  governess  was  appointed  in  my 
place  for  a  year  or  more. 


THE  COURT  HOSPITAL       289 

Bearing  in  mind  their  kindness  to  me, 
especially  during  my  illness,  I  should  in- 
deed be  ungrateful  did  I  not  acknowledge 
it  here,  in  spite  of  my  present  bitter  feelings 
through  all  that  has  since  happened. 


INDEX 


Adalbert,  Prince  of  Prussia  :  age 
at  period,  27  ;  announcement 
of  proposal  methods,  53 ; 
appearance,  personal,  32 ; 
boyhood's  personality.  32,  33  ; 
drawings,  63  ;  examination 
for  navy,  131 ;  meeting  with 
tramp,  47,  48  ;  practical  jokes, 
85,  86  ;  progress  in  English, 
44,  51,  131  ;  remarks  on 
Sedan,  71 
Albert  I,  King  of  the  Belgians, 

238 

Alexandra,  Queen,  143 
"Alexandria,"     Kaiser's    river 

steamer,  102 
"  Ami,"  185 
Aribert,  Princess,  77,  78 
August     Wilhelm,     Prince     of 
Prussia   (Prince    "Au-Wi"): 
age  at  period,  28  ;  appearance, 
personal,   28 ;  birthday,   108, 
109  ;    boyhood's   personality, 
33,  34  ;  choice  of  gifts,  255  ; 
illustrative  art,  35-7  ;   intro- 
duction to,  28 
Augusta,  German  Empress,  wife 

of  William  I,  165,  280 
Augusta  Hospital,  277,  280,  281 
Augusta       Victoria,       German 
Empress,  wife  of  William  II : 


birthday,  133 ;  charities,  145, 
157,  158;  dancing,  154,  155; 
diplomacy,  139 ;  dress,  153, 
1 68,  205  ;  etiquette,  views  on, 
153;  furs,  154;  games  with 
children,  98,  99  ;  jewels,  146, 
1 66,  167,  198-200 ;  letters 
from,  142-4 ;  motherhood, 
140-6;  presentation  to,  II  ; 
religion,  34,  141,  148,  149; 
riding,  154 ;  sick-nursing, 
278  ;  travels,  218-23,  230-3 

Baalbek,  232 

Baden,  Louise,  Grand  Duchess 

of,  72,  162,  167 
Ballin,  Herr,  head  of  American - 

Hamburg  line,  136 
Bassewitz,    Countess    von,    39, 

H3 

Bassewitz,  Countess  Ina  von,  39 
Bavaria,  234,  237,  249 
Bedchamber,    Mistress   of,    12, 

168,  260,  287 
Beirut,  231 

Bellevue  Palace,  16,  162 
Beresford,  Lord  Charles,  21 1 
Berlin,  sight-seeing  in,  212,  214 
Bescherung,  266 
Bhurraputa,  Prince  of  Siam,  198 
Birthdays :  general  celebrations, 


291 


POTSDAM  PRINCES 


105  ;  Kaiser's,  112-20 ;  Prince 
August  Wilhelm's,  108-11  ; 
Princess  Victoria  Luise's, 
106,  107 

Bismarck,  Prince,  18,  69 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  213 

Bornstedt,  216 

Braganza,  Princess  May  of,  237 

Breslau,  195 

Brockdorff,  Countess  von,  Mis- 
tress of  the  Robes,  8,  116, 
118,  168,  173,  231 

Billow,  Prince  von,  18 

Butt,  Madame  Clara,  205,  206 

Capri vi,  General  von,  18 

Cassel,  218,  223,  225 

Chancellors,  Imperial,  18 

Charles  Theodore,  Duke  of 
Bavaria,  234,  237,  239 

Chestnut  gathering,  96,  97 

China,  226-30 

Chowfa,  King  of  Siam,  197 

Christmas,  253-75 

Chulalonkorn,  King  of  Siam,  2, 
197,  198 

Clergy,  53,  54 

Confirmation,  54 

Constantinople,  231 

Court :  balls,  208,  209 ;  dentist, 
279 ;  doctor,  142,  226,  230, 
277 ;  entourage,  7-9,  168, 
169  ;  etiquette,  169,  173-5  5 
hairdresser,  146,  147  ;  mourn- 
ing, 181 

Dancing,  mistress  of,  170 
Deines,  General  von,  13 
"  Dienst,"  14 
Dress,  162-4,  168,  183 


Droshky,  193 
Dryander,  Pastor,  149 

Easter,  161,  162 

Education,  military,  6l,  64-6, 
73  ;  moral,  47,  67,  76,  80,  81, 
141  ;  religious,  34,  151 

Edward  VII,  King,  104 

Eitel  Friedrich,  Prince  of 
Prussia  (Prince  "  Fritz  ") :  age 
at  period,  27 ;  appearance, 
personal,  31  ;  boyhood's  per- 
sonality, 31,  32  ;  crushed  foot, 
148 ;  drawings,  63 ;  first 
military  command,  74  ;  intro- 
duction to,  28 ;  obedience, 
80  ;  practical  jokes,  90  ;  pro- 
gress in  English,  45  ;  school 
at  Ploen,  13 

Elisabeth,  Queen  of  the  Belgians, 
234,  237-43,  245,  246 

Eulenburg,  Count,  106 

Ewald,  Professor,  285 

Examinations,  54 

Franco- Prussian  War,  68-73 
Frederick,  Empress,  48,  204 
Frederick  the  Great,  65,  190, 

270 

Frederick  William,  German 
Crown  Prince,  27 ;  affection 
for  cousin,  248 ;  apology  for 
misdeeds,  51  ;  appearance, 
29 ;  chamois  hunt,  247  ; 
character  sketch,  29-31  ; 
drawings,  63 ;  fear  of  infec- 
tion, 216  ;  first  military  com- 
mand, 74 ;  precedence  over 
brothers,  49,  50  ;  presentation 
to,  28  ;  progress  in  English, 


INDEX 


293 


45,  51  ;  taste  in  food,  10,  91  ; 
tyrannical  tendencies,  30,  31 
Fry,  Mr.,  British  chaplain,  284 

Games,  99-102 

German,    lessons  in,    22,   156  ; 

mistakes  in,  123,  124 
Gersdorfif,  Fraulein  von,  167 
Gladstone,  William  E.,  196 
Governors,     military :     deport- 
ment,   170;   dislike   of  early 
rising,    1 6  ;   flirting  propensi- 
ties, 75  ;  instruction  in  playing 
soldiers,  6 1 ;  mark  book,  67  ; 
military    rank,    64 ;    punish- 
ment  of  pupils,  67,  68,  76  ; 
Spartan  methods  of  training, 
65,  66 ;  supervision  by  head 
governor,    13 ;    treatment    in 
illness,  277  ;  tricks  played  by 
Princes,  92,  93 
Gratulations  Cour,  200,  20 1 

Hairdresser,  146,  147 

Hake,  Fraulein  von,  Mistress  of 

the  Bedchamber,  12 
Henry,   Prince  of  Prussia,    38, 

230-3 

Hockey,  98 

Hohenlohe,  Prince  von,  18 
"  Hohenzollern,"  yacht,  230-3 
Homburg-vor-der-Hbhe,    55, 

276 

Hopetoun,  Lord,  211 
Hospitals,  158,  277,  280,  281 
Humboldt,  173,  213 
Hunt  uniform,  134 

Jaffa,  232 

Japan,  19,  136,  249 


Jerusalem,  231 

Jewellery,  correct  wearing  of, 
165 ;  Kaiser's,  119;  Kaiserin's, 
146,  166,  167,  198-200 ; 
presents  of,  260 

Joachim,  Prince  of  Prussia  :  age 
at  period,  28 ;  appearance, 
40 ;  boyhood's  personality,  40, 
41  ;  nickname,  42  ;  tutors,  41 

Keller,  Countess,  238,  248 
Kennels,  royal,  96 
Kessler,  Herr,  53 
Kiel,  22,  227,  230 
Konigliches  Schloss,  6,  214 
Kreut,  245 

Lascelles,  Sir  Frank,  171 
Li  Hung-Chang,  195,  196 
Lindstedt,  21,  22 
Live  stock,  95,  96 
Louise,  Queen  of  Prussia,   102, 
103 

Marie-Gabrielle,  Crown  Princess 
of  Bavaria,  241,  242,  249 

Marmor  Palace,  209 

Metz,  43,  122 

Mirbach,  Baron,  231 

Moltke,  Count,  106 

Munich,  237,  246 

Muschel-Saal,  204,  205,  261, 
270,  274 

Napoleon  I,  213 

Napoleon  III,  69 

Neues  Palais,  21,  98,  189,  216, 

256 

New  Year's  Day,  200 
Nicholas,  Tsar  of  Russia,  195 


294 


POTSDAM  PRINCES 


Opera,  74,  202 

Oscar,  Prince  of  Prussia  :  age  at 
period,  28  ;  appearance,  37  ; 
boyhood's  personality,  37-9 ; 
choice  of  career,  46 ;  hand- 
washing  incident,  87,  88 ; 
health,  38 ;  introduction  to, 
28 ;  morganatic  marriage, 
39 

Palestine,  imperial  tour  through, 

230-3 

Palm  Sunday,  160,  161 
Paritz,  38 

Peking,  expedition  to,  19 
"  Pfauen  Insel,"  102,  103 
Photographs,  57 
Picnics,  102 
Picture  Gallery,  93,  245 
Ploen,  13 

Pocket  money,  96,  235 
Potsdam,  8,  75,  125,  177,  195, 

196,  226 

Rauch,  Herr  von,  III 
Recreation,  91,  94,  98,  99,  102, 

108 

Rescue  Home,  157 
Robes,  Mistress  of,  8,  116,  118, 

168 
Rupprecht,    Crown    Prince    of 

Bavaria,  249 

Sanger-Schloss,  235 
Sans  Souci  Palace,  213 
Schleswig-Holstein,  Duke  Ernest 

of,  88,  89 
Sedan,   anniversary   of,   68-71, 

159 
Siam,  Kings  of,  197,  198 


Sithiphorn,  Prince  of  Siam,  2, 

197 
Sophie    Adelaide,    Princess    of 

Bavaria,  240 
Stables,  royal,  95 

Tegernsee,  2,34-52 
Theatre,  203 
Todezimmer,  245 
Travelling,  218-23,  226~33 
Turkey,  178,  231 

Unter-den-Linden,  17,  177 
Urville,  Schloss,  122,  192 

Victoria  Luise,  Princess  of 
Prussia :  age  at  period,  28 ; 
appearance,  40 ;  birthday, 
106,  200  ;  childhood's  person- 
ality, 43  ;  drive  through  Metz, 

43 

Victoria,  Queen  of  England,  45, 
118 

Waldersee,  Field  Marshal  Count 
von,  19 

Waldersee,  Countess  von,  149 

Wandel,  Frau,  Court  dancing 
mistress,  170 

Wanderlust,  218 

Whitmonday,  103 

Wilhelmshohe  Palace,  218,  225 

William  I,  German  Emperor, 
61,  72,  102 

William  II,  German  Emperor  : 
anecdotes  —  the  devil  of  a 
spoon,  123 ;  drinking  accusa- 
tion, 125  ;  fingerless  gloves, 
129  ;  insult  in  public,  125-7  ; 
Queen  Victoria  and  bread 


INDEX 


295 


and  butter,  118;   table   con- 
tretemps, 130 

Appearance,  118;  argu- 
ment on  English  grammar, 
131 ;  birthday  celebrations, 
112-20,  159,  164;  conversa- 
tional powers,  121  ;  deformity, 
119;  fear  of  infection,  216; 
feeling  against  Jews,  119; 
handshake,  119;  jewellery, 
119 ;  personality,  120,  121, 


135;  presentation  to  him,  117, 
118;  sense  of  humour,  121, 
129,  130;  travelling,  133, 134, 
2 1 8,  221  ;  uniforms,  134,  203  ; 
views  on  women,  139 

Windsor,  21,  288 

Wittelsbach,  house  of,  237 

Zapfen-Streich,  211 

Zeppelins,  78 

Zuncker,  Dr.,  142,  226,  230,  277 


Printed  by 

MORRISON  &  GIBB  LIMIT  KD 
Edinburgh 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


IHTERLIBRARY 
DIVERSITY  OP 
SANTA   BARBARA,  ~CA 


LOA7S 

CALIFORNIA 
93106 


A     000604182     6 


